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CharmYou Posted 12 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

How does R affect the vowel before it?

According to the IPA, the word hear is pronounced /h?r/, but it sounds like /hi?r/ instead of /h?r/. The vowel is more like /i?/ as in heat instead of /?/ as in hit. I think it's because of the R, right? How do you pronounce /?r/? more like /?r/ or /i?r/?

Do you pronounce hear as /hi?r/ with a long e sound or /h?r/ with a short i sound?

How does R affect the vowel before it?
  

Top answer

org/wiki/R-colored_vowel That aside, you are not pronouncing the vowel in 'hear' correctly. In your first pronunciation of it the vowel is too long and the second pronunciation sounds like hair. com/dictionary/hear

— Pronunciationkaren

  • org/wiki/R-colored_vowel That aside, you are not pronouncing the vowel in 'hear' correctly.
  • In your first pronunciation of it the vowel is too long and the second pronunciation sounds like hair.
  • com/dictionary/hear
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5 Answers
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Have a look at this description of r-colouring of vowels here for an explanation of the effect of 'r' on a preceding vowel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-colored_vowel

That aside, you are not pronouncing the vowel in 'hear' correctly. In your first pronunciation of it the vowel is too long
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One can produce both /hi:?/ and /h??/. In other words, the former is not articulatoricaly impossible. As Karen pointed out, your realization of /?/ sounds more like closed e [e].

Vowels before historical r became laxed/neutral.

Check Lawler's piece: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawl
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CharmYouAccording to the IPA, the word hear is pronounced /h?r/, but it sounds like /hi?r/ instead of /h?r/.
It depends whose speech they were transcribing. Both are acceptable.

However, from your recording I see that for /h?r/ you're saying /h?r/ ("hair"). At least that's how it sounds to me. So you're better off using the pronunciation /hi?r/ whe
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CharmYouHow does R affect the vowel before it?
I think you would do well to listen to the words below at www.m-w.com to learn the pronunciation of the six R-colored vowels of American English.

deer moor
care fur core
tar

You might also want to add 'letter' for the sound of the R-colored schwa.

I've seen both /i:r/ and /?r/ wr
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