How do you pronounce "year"?

Question

It seems to me that English people pronounce the word "year" according to the sentence.
When they say " one year" the word "year" in pronounced with a sound like A. YAR.
When they say " two years" the word "year" is pronounced with a sound like O. YOR.
Is this correct?

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

Neither yar nor yor.
It rhymes with ear or ears.
Yeer or yeerz.

Austere125rivers · Answer

Try to pronounce "one year" and you ll find that you are not pronouncing ear sound. Americans would pronounce "one year" like in fur.

BarbaraPA · Answer

I *am* an American. I don't say "yur."

CalifJim · Answer

austere125riversWhen they say " one year" the word "year" in pronounced with a sound like A. YAR.When they say " two years" the word "year" is pronounced with a sound like O. YOR.Is this correct?

One yahr, two yoars? No.

R-colored vowels do tend to be pronounced closer to the center of the mouth, and the amount of centralizing varies from one speaker to another, but modifying a vowel from EE to AH or OA is not part of this centralizing process.

The EE of year can be relatively uncentralized (EE in peek), moderately centralized (I in pick), or completely centralized (ER in her). The speakers I am most familiar with do not often centralize the 'ear' in 'year' completely, so I don't hear 'yer' a lot. If there are people who regularly do that, it must be in another region. I probably hear the moderately centralized version the most often.

CJ

Austere125rivers · Answer

Thank you calif. very interesting replay as usual <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/21.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/21.gif' alt='Emotion: yes'/> but I am quiet sure of my remarks. Maybe you are a native speaker you may not pay close attention to some pronunciations,for example I have heard so many times English news reporters saying " dish year" instead of "this year" . Even my phonetic signs show me that the letter "th" in "other" and "others" is pronounced differently. They are the same words, one singular  the other is plural and yet the "th" is pronounced differently.

CalifJim · Answer

'dish year' sounds regional, but 'thish year' is a normal effect without which you can't sound authentically English.

See

austere125riversmy phonetic signs show me that the letter "th" in "other" and "others" is pronounced differently. ... one singular the other is plural and yet the "th" is pronounced differently.

Which signs are 'your phonetic signs'? Are they different from other people's phonetic signs?

Your results are astonishing, in any case. You must be doing some incredibly narrow phonetic transcriptions.

Maybe we should get some spectrograms or study these with an oscilloscope.

CJ

Austere125rivers · Answer

Here is snap shot from my dictionary

CalifJim · Answer

I believe your dictionary is mistaken.

I don't know what institution published that dictionary, but I would not trust it completely. They should be using the same symbol in both of those words for the 'th' sound in 'other ( s )', namely 'dh'.

I checked words that have the same ending (mother, father, hither, ...) and only the entry for 'others' was given with the 'th'. They just missed that one, I suppose.

CJ

Austere125rivers · Answer

I have noticed the difference between to two even before looking for any dictionary. Because of the S in the end, English speakers tend to to alter the sound "th" to make it easier for the tongue.

CalifJim · Answer

austere125riversI have noticed the difference between to two even before looking for any dictionary. Because of the S in the end, English speakers tend to to alter the sound "th" to make it easier for the tongue.

I believe you are unique in making this observation. I'll have to listen carefully.

CJ

How do you pronounce "year"?

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