IPA phoneme \ɜː\

In English, both in Received Pronunciation and in General American, the IPA phonetic symbol **/ɜː/** corresponds to the vowel sound in words like "nurse", "turn", "word" and "girl" (/nɜːrs, tɜːrn, wɜːrd/ and /gɜːrl/).

At the advice of Clive Upton the *Concise Oxford Dictionary* altered the British tradition and now uses /əː/ instead of /ɜː/; later *Oxford Dictionaries Online* followed the same convention. Linguist Jack Windsor Lewis said "This has the advantage of reducing the total number of unfamiliar symbols to be assimilated by the general user". However his verdict is "as things are, it doesn't now seem worthwhile changing what we have".

Some American dictionaries use /ɜ/ or /ɝ/ instead of /ɜː/. Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary uses /ɚ/ both for /ər/ (unstressed) and /ɜːr/ (stressed). /ɝ/ and /ɚ/ are called r-colored vowels.

## Silent /r/

In Received Pronunciation /ɜːr/ is pronounced [ɜː] or [əː] unless it is followed by a vowel, i.e. the "r" is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel.

In General American the "r" is always pronounced, either as [ɜɹ] or [ɝ].

There are places in the United Kingdom where the "r" is pronounced, and places in North America where it is not pronounced.

## Common words

**IPA consonants**

Some common words containing **/ɜ:/** include the following:

* With "**er**": certain - concern - determine - her - nerve - perfect - person - service - term - verb - were
* With "**ear**": early - earn - earth - heard - learn - search
* With "**ur**": burn - hurt - murder - return - surface - Thursday - turn - urban
* With "**ir**": bird - birthday - circle - dirty - firm - girl - shirt - sir - skirt - stir - third - thirsty - thirty
* With "**or**": word - work - world - worse - worst - worth
* Others: journalist - journey

## Less common words

* With "**er**": certify - fern - herb - herd - Mercury /ˈmɜːrkjəriː/ - merge - kerb - stern - thermal
* With "**ear**": pearl
* With "**ur**": curb - curly - fur - surgeon - urgent
* With "**ir**": Birmingham /ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/ - fir - flirt
* With "**or**": attorney - worm
* With "**our**": courteous
* With "**eur**": connoisseur /ˌkɒnəˈsɜːr/ - entrepreneur /ˌɒntrəprəˈnɜːr/

Since in American English /ɜː/ is always followed by /r/, the pronunciation of *hors d'oeuvre* (appetizer) has an unwritten /r/: /ˌɔːr ˈdɜːrv/. In Received Pronunciation the /r/ is not pronounced. See [1] for a phonetic misspelling of *hors d'oeuvre*.

## Homophones

* birth - berth; colonel - kernel; earn - urn; fir - fur; heard - herd; tern - turn.

## These words don't rhyme

* early - dearly; heard - beard; were - here; worm - storm;

## Variant pronunciations

* deterent: /dɪˈterənt,*BrE* dɪˈtɜːrənt*AmE*/

### /ɜː/ and /ʌ/

When Received Pronunciation has the sequence /ʌːrV/ (with V any vowel, as in *hurry*), General American has the sequence /ɜːrV/ (*hurry* rhymes with *furry).* This is called the hurry-furry merger.

* RP /ʌ/, GA /ɜː/: borough /ˈbʌrə,*BrE* ˈbɜːrəʊ*AmE*/ - concurrence - concurrent - courage - currant - currency - current - hurry - nourish - occurrence - thorough /ˈθʌrə,*BrE* ˈθɜːrəʊ*AmE*/ - worry
* RP and GA /ɜː/: blurry - concurring - furry - occurring - preferring - referral - referring - stirring

## Six ways to spell "sir"

* sirloin - sermon - search - surgeon - certain - circle

## Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1

### Spanish

/ɜː/ is completely foreign to Spanish speakers.

In the case of cognates, they often pronounce them as in Spanish. For example, *urgent* pronounced as \*/ˈʊr.dʒənt/, *virtual* as \*/ˈvɪr.tʃwəl/ and *perfect* as \*/ˈper.fɪkt/.

In the case of native English words, the Spanish adaptations normally use a spelling pronunciation, as in "sterling" translated to *esterlina* or "flirt" translated to *flirtear*. This habit is often used when speaking English, such as pronouncing "bird" similar to "beard" or "word" similar to "ward".

## References

1. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries Online, Key to pronunciations (British and World English dictionary). See əː as in h*er*.
2. ↑ IPA vowel symbols for British English in dictionaries, Section 7. /əː/ versus /ɜː/.
3. ↑ Wikipedia. English-language vowel changes before historic /r/ — Hurry-furry merger.

## See also

* Decoding exercises: "urV" and "urrV"
* Pronunciation exercises: /eə/ vs /ɜː/

## External links

* British Library, Vowel sounds of Received Pronunciation