 o AND O: sound ???
Since taking a rather keen interest in Phonetics, I wonder about the "rules" (if there's any) in case of identifying in certain sounds.
As far as identifying the difference between "o" (as in "hot") & "O:" is concerned (as in "water"), I remember while flipping through the pages of some Phonetic based book, it said something like the general rule being if the spelling has "letter o" in it then it gets pronounced with "sound o" but if it hasn't got "letter o" then it gets pronounced with "sound O:".
Bearing this in mind, it made sense in identifying sounds in words like: water, assault, hall, ball, etc. having "sound O:" since the spelling of the word has NOT got letter "o" in it.
However, if that was the case, I wonder why does the word like "cauliflower", "alter", "alternative", "fault" etc. has "sound o" rather than "sound O:".
Any idea about the rules in identifying what sound occurs where ??? |