IPA phoneme /ʊə/

In Received Pronunciation, the IPA phonetic symbol corresponds to the dipthong sound in words like "cure"  and "tour"  Currently in Received Pro&shy;nun&shy;ci&shy;a&shy;tion this phoneme is disappearing, in favour of  in the so-called CURE-FORCE merger (also called pour-poor merger). For example "tour" is pronounced either /tʊər/ or /tɔːr/. "Sure" can be pronounced either or /ʃɔːr/.

In General American, on the other hand, /ʊər/ and /ʊr/ can be pronounced [ʊər] at the end of the syllable or before a consonant or [ʊr] before a vowel. Since the difference is predictable it can be said that General American doesn't have an /ʊə/ phoneme. This should be called “CURE pronounced as FOOT” or (less precisely) “the CURE-FOOT merger” but we could find only one reference, as a comment in a blog. See IPA phoneme /ʊ/.

In the United States a few words with /ʊər/ can be pronounced [ɜːr]. This is called the CURE-NURSE merger (also called cure-fir merger). See IPA phoneme /ɜː/ and the Advanced material section.

In Received Pronunciation /ʊər/ and /ɔːr/ are pronounced [ʊə] and [ɔː] unless they are followed by a vowel, i.e. the "r" is normally silent unless it is followed by a vowel.

In General American the "r" is always pronounced.

There are places in the United Kingdom where the "r" is pronounced, and places in North America where it is not pronounced.

Examples
Some words which practise the pronunciation of /ʊə/ include the following, taken from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary unless otherwise noted:
 * Not merging into /ɔ:/ (i.e. with [ʊə] sound in Received Pronunciation)
 * /jʊə/: :bureau - curious - during - endure - Europe - European - furious - fury - impure - manicure - neuron - neurosis - pure - puritan - purity - secure - security - spurious - urine
 * /ʊə/: mature /məˈtʃʊər/ - Missouri - rural


 * Partially merged into /ɔ:/ (i.e. with either a [ʊə] sound or [ɔː] sound in Received Pronunciation)
 * /jʊə/ or /jɔː/: cure - you're
 * /ʊə/ or /ɔː/: :ensure - jury - poor - sure - tour - tourist


 * Fully merged into /ɔː/ (i.e. only some Americans pronounce it [ʊə] or [ʊ])
 * /jɔː/: your


 * There are more homophones in Received Pronunciation than in American English: poor - pore; sure - shore:

Received Pronunciation
In Received Pronunciation some words marked as "Not merging into /ɔ:/" above are actually merging into [u:ə], with two syllables (similar to the pronunciation of "fuel").

For example, "secure" might be pronounced either /sɪˈkjʊər/ or /sɪˈkju:ər/.

Some people use the monophthong /uː/, pronouncing, for example "rural" as /ˈru:rəl/ instead of /ˈrʊərəl/.

Still other people have another monophthong in their pronunciation of /ʊə/, namely [ɵː]. See The demise of ʊə as in CURE  Fate 3 to hear clips with this sound.

United States
In General American /ʊə(r)/ is /ʊr/ and may be pronounced [ʊər] or [ʊr] depending on its position in the word. However some specific words in some parts of the United States are merged into /ɜːr/. All examples taken from Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary (MWLD) at http://www.learnersdictionary.com/ where they appear as only pronunciation (note that /ɚ/ in MWLD is /ɜːr/ in Teflpedia). Only "sure" and its derivatives appear in the Random House Dictionary, and only as a second pronunciation.


 * from "sure" /ɜːr/: assurance, assure, ensure, insurance, insure, sure, surely
 * /jɜːr/: bureau, cure, curious, manicure, pure, puritan, purity, secure, security, spurious, urine
 * /ɜːr/: endure, jury

Not merging into /ɜː/
These examples have [u], [ʊ] or [uɚ] in the narrow notation used by Merriam-Webster's. In Teflpedia's broad notation we use /ʊ/ or simply /ʊə/.
 * during - Europe - European - furious - fury - impure - neurosis - poor - tour - tourism - tourist

Anticipated pronunciation difficulties depending on L1
It is a dilemma to teach students a pronunciation that is falling out of use. The words that still have [ʊə] in Received Pronunciation are very few. When teaching General American the /ʊ/ pronunciation should be taught: cure as [ˈkjʊər] and curable as [ˈkjʊrəbəl].

The following section aims to point out some of the most typical difficulties teachers and students may encounter regarding pronunciation.

Spanish
Spanish speakers don't confuse this phoneme with others, but they tend to pronounce it as [u:ə], which, as shown above, is not uncommon for native speakers.