LoginHow to Pronounce the /ɜ/ Sound
In this lesson, we are going to learn how the sound /ɜ/ is produced by looking at the articulatory organs.
What Type of Sound Is /ɜ/?
/ɜ/ is similar to /ə/ sound but it is always longer and it always precedes the letter "r." Therefore, you might sometimes see /ɝ/ instead of /ɜ/ in the American phonology.
How to Produce /ɜ/?
To produce it, stretch out your lips and make them unrounded, then make a long /ɜ/ sound. As you can see in the picture, when producing the /ɜ/ sound, the mouth is open like when saying /e/ but it is not as rounded as when producing the /ɑ/ sound.
Which Letters are Pronounced as /ɜ/?
/ɜ/ Around the World
As you can see in the table below, none of the common languages around the world have this sound, so you will need a little practice to be able to produce it.
Existence | Example | |
|---|---|---|
Mandarin | x | - |
Spanish | x | - |
Hindi | x | - |
Bengali | x | - |
Portuguese | x | - |
Russian | x | - |
Japanese | x | - |
Vietnamese | x | - |
Turkish | x | - |
French | x | - |
German | x | - |
Italian | x | - |
Persian | x | - |
Standard Arabic | x | - |
Korean | x | - |
Indonesian | x | - |
Filipino | x | - |
Hungarian | x | - |
Dutch | x | - |
Polish | x | - |
Romanian | x | - |
Swedish | x | - |
Czech | x | - |
Greek | x | - |
Ukrainian | x | - |
Urdu | x | - |
Listening
Let's listen to the pronunciation of the /ɜ/ sound which has been mentioned below:
Down below, there are two other sounds similar to the /ɜ/ sound. At first, listen to the /e/ sound and then listen to the /ɑ/ sound:
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