Question for Americans. How do you pronounce ''roof''?

Roof roof roof   Saturday, May 08, 2004, 20:02 GMT
Canadians sometimes say that a difference between ''Canadian English'' and American English is that Canadians pronounce ''roof'' as [ru:f] and Americans say [ruf]. I'm an American and I say [ru:f] and I think that pronunciation actually more common in America than [ruf]. Those Canadians are just wrong.
mjd   Saturday, May 08, 2004, 22:18 GMT
I say [ru:f]....this is definitely the most common way in the U.S.
Yasmin   Sunday, May 09, 2004, 05:50 GMT
I'm American and I say [ru:f]. Most Americans I know say that.
Willy   Sunday, May 09, 2004, 06:20 GMT
The dictionary has two manners of saying "roof". Particularly I think that the English is not reformed, yet. So I cannot tell you how to explain without symbols. Probably you'll criticize(-se) the symbols that other dictionaries don't use alike.
Damian   Sunday, May 09, 2004, 08:43 GMT
There is a difference in the way the English and the Scots pronounce it....in England it's definitely [ru:f] I, like most Scots, make the vowel sound shorter and it's similar to the "u" sound the French make in the word "du". I'm sure most of you are familiar with the Scottish accent.
Americans   Sunday, May 09, 2004, 14:25 GMT
We say [ru:f].
Jim   Monday, May 10, 2004, 01:23 GMT
Isn't that just how the Scots pronounce [u:]? I mean, e.g., I was listening to the accent of some Scottish sports announcer on the BBC the other day and it seemed that all of his [u:]s came out sounding (to my Aussie ears) like [u]s.
Damian   Monday, May 10, 2004, 21:07 GMT
Speaking for myself and my own local accent in Edinburgh it's definitely a shorter sound than the u: sound in England..... as I say more like the "u" sound in French, which phonetically I think is "y". So I guess it is more like "ryf" To your Aussie ears I guess all Scots accents sound the same... Hey, I offended a guy from NZ once asking him where in Oz he came from! :-( Sorry..I cannae tell the difference.
Joe   Monday, May 10, 2004, 21:26 GMT
So, you're saying that Scots pronounce ''roof'' as [rjf]. That's impossible to say. No one say [rjf]. There are no words that have only consonant sounds.
Elaine   Monday, May 10, 2004, 22:06 GMT
Joe,
Damian said he pronounces the "u" like in French, so that would be [ryf] not [rjf]. Is that so hard for you to understand?
Wilhelm   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 01:42 GMT
Joe means Jolanda. He's just a woman. Learn inglés, marica!
Jim   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 02:02 GMT
Damian,

Thanks for the info. Hey, what about [u] then? Are [u:] and [u] different in your Edinburgh accent? I guess they'd have to be otherwise "full" & "fool", "pull" & pool", "puff" & "poof", etc. would sound the same. If so how? What about other Scottish accents?

I couldn't answer whether or not all Scots sound the same to me. You see, the problem is that I've never been to Scotland (except maybe when I was seven-months or so old) and whenever I've heard a Scottish accent the full details of its socio-geographic origin tend not to accompany it.

Joe,

That's not what Damian was saying at all. He was using [y] as in the IPA which is not the same as Antimoon's [j]. Check it out.

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/fullchart.html
Joe   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 02:07 GMT
So, I guess he was saying that in his Scottish accent [u:] is more closer to the IPA's [y].
Jim   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 05:37 GMT
That's how I read him.
Jim   Tuesday, May 11, 2004, 06:13 GMT
Let me clarify what you might mean by "more closer". Not trying to be pedantic or anything: it's just that "closer" (you wouldn't say "more closer") indicates some kind of comparison so we have to be clear exactly what comparison was being made.

He was comparing /u:/ in his Scottish accent to the same phoneme in English accents. He was saying that his /u:/ is closer to the IPA's [y] than the English /u:/. The same phoneme but different phones.

Note the different notation: this is to contrast phones and phonemes. I've been too lazy lately and not bothered to make this distinction. Please remind me in future. To see what I'm no about click here.

http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAPhoneme.htm