LoginHow to Pronounce the /ɜ/ Sound
Learn about the /ɜ/ sound, a mid-central vowel often found in stressed syllables. Understand its pronunciation and how it differs from other vowel sounds.
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/?
Mouth Configuration for /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/?
The sound /ɜ/ is represented by the following letters:
Pie Chart of the Letters that Make the /ɜ/ Sound
- e:
p
s
- u:
t
b
- i:
f
th
- o:
w
w
- ea:
p
- ou:
j
j
/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 | - |
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