courier/Curia

Josh Lalonde   Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:39 pm GMT
In "Accents of English" Wells mentions that these two words don't rhyme for him, with 'Curia' having the vowel of CURE in the first syllable, and 'courier' the vowel of FOOT (["kUrI.@] vs. ["kjU@.rI.@]). For me, they have the same vowel, and differ only in presence of [j] in the first syllable and of r-colouring in the last
courier [k3`.r/i.@`]
Curia ["kj3`.r/i.6]
How do these differ in your accents? Are there any accents in which they are homophones?
Travis   Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:44 pm GMT
I myself have:

courier ["k_hR=:i:R=:]
Curia ["k_hjR=:i:@:]

I would say that what i have is effectively the same as what you have except with a different underlying phonology being present.
Lazar   Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:54 pm GMT
Those words use the same vowel in my accent:

courier ["k_h3`i@`]
Curia ["k_hj3`i@]

As far as RP goes, the Cambridge Online Dictionary gives the pronunciation as /"kUri@/, which I think would make it the only word in that dialect to use /Ur/.
Gabriel   Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:03 pm GMT
<<which I think would make it the only word in that dialect to use /Ur/. >>

I've heard RP speakers use /Ur/ for the name of my native country as well: Uruguay (although, granted, there are other possibilities).
Jim   Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:48 pm GMT
I'd be like Wells except for the fact that my CURE vowel seems to have disintergrated thus I have the FOOT vowel for "courier" and the GOOSE vowel for "Curia".