The ER-Sound
This next vowel sound is not a diphthong, but worth focusing or highlighting because of how common it is, especially in North American English.
The ER-sound is one of what experts will describe as an ‘R-colored vowels’. They are exceedingly rare, occurring in less than one percent of all languages but are used in two of the most widely spoken languages: North American English and Mandarin Chinese.
In North American English, they are found in words such as dollar, butter, third, color, and nurse. These examples show that the ER sound can be reflected as an AR-, ER-, IR-, OR-, or UR-letter combination.
Now, there are a few potential symbols used to represent this sound depending on who you ask and whether the sound occurs in a stressed or unstressed location.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbol options for this sound include:
ɝ, ɜɹ, or ɜr for stressed syllables
ɚ, əɹ, or ər for unstressed syllables
I personally use ɝ and ɚ for stressed and unstressed syllables and will refer to the ER-sound with one of those two symbols.
SYMBOL
On the IPA vowel chart, it is located in the middle of the chart.
The Color Vowel® Chart, created by Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson in 1999, is another visual organizer for spoken English and represents how to learn and think about vowels. It refers to this sound as the ‘PURPLE SHIRT’ sound or the PURPLE vowel. Notice the consistent placement on the mid-right corner of each respective chart.
The Color Vowel® Chart, 5th Edition © 2019. ColorVowel.com. Used with Creative Commons licensing (CC BY-NC-ND).
SOUND
So, the ER-sound in BIRD is the UH-sound with a clear R-sound. Your mouth will change position and shape because of the influence of the clear R-sound.
To pronounce the /ɝ/ or /ɚ/ sound correctly, round your lips and curl the tip of your tongue back. Make your lips and tongue tense.
Your mouth should open slightly. Your lips should round slightly and be tensed. Your tongue should be tense and the tip should be raised towards the alveolar ridge behind your upper front teeth. But, it should not touch the ridge. Instead, it curls towards slightly. The tongue body should lower slightly.
FEATURES
The [ə] sound or ‘schwa’ sound feature are as follows.
Its vowel height is mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a close vowel and an open vowel.
Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
The [ɜ] sound features are as follows.
Its vowel height is open-mid, also known as low-mid, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between an open vowel (a low vowel) and a mid vowel.
Its vowel backness is central, which means the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel.
It is unrounded, which means that the lips are not rounded.
If you compare the [ə] and [ɜ] sounds, the only difference is a slightly more open mouth (from mid to low-mid).
The [ɹ] sound features are as follows:
Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge.
Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air from the lungs using your diaphragm.
VISUAL REPRESENTATION
In English, the ER-sound is reflected in spelling in many different ways. Depending on the specific English dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters:
AR - dollar
ER - butter, her, person, were,
IR - thirteen, third, first, girl
OR - color/colour, work, world, ,worry
UR - nurse, turn, church, current, hurry,
EAR - early, earth, learn
OUR - courage, journey
The ER-sound can appear in all positions of a word (beginning, middle, end) but typically is in the middle or end.
The reason why I’m especially showing you the different spelling combinations that can create this sound is that there will ALWAYS be exceptions, weird spellings, or other things that impact how reliable the written representation will be. For example, SQUIRREL has the ER-sound.
LISTENING
You need to be able to identify the sound; rhyming is an excellent way to match it properly. So, if you are not good already, start practicing rhyming and hearing the sound.
A good practice sentence is “A Bird In a Purple Skirt”
SoundsAmerican has a great article on the ER-sound, including this video.
Sandiego Voice and Accent also has a great resource as well.
I’m breaking down every single sound down for you so that you can learn how to produce each sound in English accurately. Sometimes, we’ll have easier sounds and sometimes we’ll have harder sounds.
If you’ve grasped this sound, then great! But if you’ve got a tip that might work for others, or you took a while to produce this sound correct but something clicked for you, let me know down below in the comments. My goal is to have a community know what to do when they’re stuck!
