'Ou' in 'soul'

CuriousMum · Post by **CuriousMum** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:25 pm

I'm sure there are loads of other words where 'ou-' is pronounced 'oa', as in 'soul', but I couldn't think of any when my 4 year old came across this and read it 's-ow-l'. (He was reading a poster advertising, among other things, giant inflatables and a soul band). I wanted to give him other examples, but I keep drawing a blank.

I know there are lots of experts out there, so please put me out of my misery.....

Post by **Lesley Drake** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:35 pm

boulder

shoulder

mould

moulder

Post by **Lesley Drake** » Sat May 20, 2006 5:37 pm

moult

poultice

poultry

Post by **Lesley Drake** » Sat May 20, 2006 6:40 pm

Sorry Dick,

You can only have ONE of these and that's moult.

Pronunciation-wise,

Court is c-or-t

Gourd is g-oor-d

Mourn is m-or-n

Odour is o-d-er

Dough is right sound, but the sound is represented by 4 letters,

D-ough

Bob Boden · Post by **Bob Boden** » Sat May 20, 2006 7:18 pm

The words I always use in describing the sounds of 'ou' are:

out
soup
touch
soul
thought
should

Bob Boden

Post by **Lesley Drake** » Sat May 20, 2006 10:01 pm

Then again, there's rule 81...

D'Oh! as used by Homer Simpson.

chew8 · Post by **chew8** » Sun May 21, 2006 8:59 am

I will check the American/English picture for 'ou' when I see my son and daughter-in-law tomorrow - they are over here on holiday at present. Son has a PhD in phonology and lives in the USA - daughter-in-law is American and also has a good understanding of phonology. I suspect that it's not just a matter of different accents but also of the surrounding sounds affecting the pronunciation of the 'ou'. We have to remember that in normal speech, many sounds are a bit different from the stylised sounds we teach children to relate to letters.

Jenny.

Tricia · Post by **Tricia** » Sun May 21, 2006 3:03 pm

Having just returned from 3 weeks in the Great White North, I'm feeling confident about my mother dialect.

"Duh" and "D'oh" are two different terms.

"duh" as in Well, duh........ (drawn out "uh" sound)

"d'oh" (staccato "oe" sound") is distinctly Homeresque. Check out this link: http://www.snpp.com/guides/dohs.html

I'd have to agree with Lesely that moult is the only sample with "oe" in it - at least for our teaching purposes. Even in a North American dialect, it's easier to think of all the vowel controlled r's as single sounds.

honour = "er" (yeah, I know, Canadian spelling)

court = "or" The vower sound before the "r" is neither "oe" as coast or "o" as in pot.

Bob - You're confusing various ways to pronounce a spelling with various ways to spell a sound.

Cheers.

CuriousMum · Post by **CuriousMum** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:23 pm

Thank you all! I knew there were some but I couldn't think of them. I wasn't sure about 'dough' and 'though' because of the four letters. I will use 'shoulder' and 'boulder', both of which he reads with no problems, if he misreads 'soul' again.

Post by **maizie** » Sun May 21, 2006 10:18 pm

You could use mould and moulder (as in 'John Brown's body lies a'mouldering etc :D )

I would never have said that 'dough' & 'though' have the same sound, but perhaps that just the way those cockneys say it

CuriousMum · Post by **CuriousMum** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:04 pm

To my London ears (!), 'dough' has the same relationship with 'soul' as 'fee' does with 'feel'. The terminal 'l' changes the vowel slightly, but it's close enough to call it the same sound in my dialect (pretty much what used to be called RP). :D

FEtutor · Post by **FEtutor** » Tue May 23, 2006 12:43 pm

As a geordie/Londoner I agree, and put an /l/ on the end of dough and you've got 'dole', if you see what I mean. What difference do you hear between 'dough' and 'though', Maizie?
FEtutor

'Ou' in 'soul'

'Ou' in 'soul'

sounds of 'ou'

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