were

Humble   Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:40 am GMT
Hi,

As far as I know _ere_ in “were” is pronounced in three ways:
1. as a long monophthong (like in HER)
2. as a diphtong (like in HAIR)
3. as a short monophthong

#3 is not a problem – in a weak position.
Could you please explain the difference in the usage of #1 and #2?

Thanks.
Dave   Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:05 am GMT
Unless you are talking about various dialectal pronunciations, then number 2 would normally be the pronunciation of "where", not "were". I am not claiming there is no dialect that would pronounce "were" as "where", though.
Guest   Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:18 am GMT
In some (many?) dialects, the "wh" in "where" has an "h" sound to it, so that "were" and "whirr", and "wear" and "where" do not sound the same.

That being said, around here, I don't usually hear "were" pronounced as "wear".
Humble   Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:25 am GMT
D. Jones shows #2 as a less frequent pronunciation.
Humble   Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:52 am GMT
So, only #1 everywhere?
Guest   Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:44 am GMT
I only pronounce "were" as "wear" in "Werewolf".
Humble   Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:07 am GMT
Thank you.

Frankly speaking, I’m a bit upset and surprised at the slack feedback. Regular Antimooners have always snatched at phonetics subjects.
Travis   Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:46 am GMT
I myself have never heard of "were" being pronounced with a diphthong in any English dialects that I know of... However, I am not that familiar with English English, Scottish English, Irish English dialects, so it could have such a pronunciation in some given English dialect outside North America...
Humble   Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:54 am GMT
Thanks, Travis.
Guest   Sat Apr 19, 2008 8:25 pm GMT
In some English English dialects, there's a merger of SQUARE and NURSE so that "were" would rhyme with "wear" and "where". However it's not a diphthong, it's [E:] or [3:] or perhaps somewhere between the two. I'm not aware of any dialects where "were" would rhyme with the words without such a merger occurring.
Rick   Sun Apr 20, 2008 12:25 am GMT
For a word that does vary in pronunciation between rhyming with "fare" and rhyming with "her" is "err". I pronounce it [E_rr\] which is homophonous with "air".