Are these words pronounced different in AmE

Estel   Sun Feb 15, 2009 2:09 pm GMT
Recently I came across a bunch of words that are pronounced the same by my British professor and I wonder how Americans would pronounce them.

pore/pour/poor
boor/bore

To me they're really close and I can't really tell the difference when I pronounce them. But again, I sometimes have a weird accent.
Northwesterner   Sun Feb 15, 2009 3:11 pm GMT
>> pore/pour/poor
boor/bore <<

I think I remember reading that some people pronounce them differently--although I don't know exactly how you could pronounce them differently. In the Northwest, they're pronounced as [p_hOr\] and [bOr\]. Maybe "pour" could be pronounced like in French as [p_hur\]? But that would sound really weird, like a foreigner trying to speak English. In any event, they're supposed to all sound the same (except for the p/b distinction.)
Matt   Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:32 pm GMT
<<Maybe "pour" could be pronounced like in French as [p_hur\]? But that would sound really weird, like a foreigner trying to speak English.>>

No, it's "poor" that's pronounced that way, that "pour". I don't make the distinction and pronounce all three as "por" and "boor" and "bore" both as "bor".
Estel   Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:44 am GMT
Thanks for the responses. I thought I was weird for saying them the same for a while. LOL
Estel   Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:45 am GMT
PS and the title should be "are these words pronounced differently in AmE?"
from OH   Wed Feb 18, 2009 1:38 pm GMT
Estel,

Poor and Pour are pronounced diffrently. "Pore" sounds more like "pour" to me.
Take a look at www.thefreedictionary.com
I couldn't paste and copy the pronounciation.