ɜː
long open-mid central unrounded — ur in nurse (British).
open-midcentralunroundedlong
Hear it
Synthesised in your browser from this sound's own recipe — formants for vowels, filtered noise for fricatives, a burst for plosives. A robot mouth, not a recording: what you hear is the physics the symbol describes.
In combination
Sounds change colour depending on their neighbours — coarticulation is why isolated drilling only gets you so far.
Build longer chains in the combination lab.
How each language writes it
| Language | Spellings | Example | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | erirurear (earth)or (word) | bird bɜːd bird | American: /ɝ/ with the r. |
Rows follow the languages you have switched on at the top.