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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Pronounciation

The tanscription in merriam-webster.com (not an IPA sysem) is \'ker\ (for care), \'sher\ (share), \'wer\ (wear), \'bir\ Emotion: beer, \'hir\ (hear) and \'nir\ (nir)
while in dictioanry.com (IPA) these words are transcribed as /k??r/, /???r/, /w??r/, /b??r/ etc.

My question: Which of them is more accurate? Is this vowel pronounced as a monophthong or as a diphthong ([??])?

Thanks,
  

Top answer

In US English, care, share, and wear rhyme with each other; and hear and near rhyme with each other (care and hear do not rhyme with each other).

— Anonymous

  • In US English, care, share, and wear rhyme with each other; and hear and near rhyme with each other (care and hear do not rhyme with each other).
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7 Answers
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In US English, care, share, and wear rhyme with each other; and hear and near rhyme with each other (care and hear do not rhyme with each other).
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Also, beer rhymes with hear.
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In US English, all six words can be pronounced either curtly (with a single vowel sound), or "drawled out" (with a dual vowel sound). So both transcriptions are correct.
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Thank you.
So you say there are 2 different pronunciations in the US.
Is this regional? or maybe it's only a matter of how you emphasise the word?
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AnonymousWhich of them is more accurate?
Phonetic transcriptions are the result of personal judgments about the best way to encode a sound. Even if two people hear the same sound, they may transcribe it differently. There is no question that both of these transcriptions describe the same sound, so it is not a question of monophthong or diphthong. If you li
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Thank you CJ,

According to the Anonymous above, these two transcriptions represent two different ways of pronunciation.
I see you think otherwise. In the past I found your answers to be accurate and helpfull, so I think I should accept your point of view this time as well.
Thank you.
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I can pronounce "care" (to take just one example) in a spectrum of different ways, all of which feel fairly natural to me, the extremes of which would be a pronounced diphthong "ke-uh" and a pure vowel "keh". I do not pronounce the "r" at all. I have a southern England accent.
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