Pronunciation of "toady": /əʊ/ vs /oʊ/

Dear Teachers

I come up with the pronunciation of "toady" in Cambridge dictionary website toady noun - definition in British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionary Online. The first syllable is /əʊ/ for UK pronunciation and /oʊ/ for US. But what the difference in the sound?

toadynoun

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/exte...es/pron-uk.pnghttp://dictionary.cambridge.org/exte...es/pron-us.png/ˈtəʊ.di/http://dictionary.cambridge.org/exte...s/ussymbol.png/ˈtoʊ-/ [C] disapproving


When I look up the phonetic symbol table in this link Glossary of Linguistic Terms n-z (attached photo), there is no /oʊ/. So how is /oʊ/ pronounced?

Please advise.

Regards

Anthony the learner

I believe ɒʊ would be an alternative way to write the American diphthong oʊ.

The o in oʊ is really an ɒ (as in 'hot'). The southern British (RP) diphthong əʊ starts with a more relaxed schwa ə before moving to ʊ. Whereas the American diphthong oʊ or ɒʊ starts with a more rounded mouth sound - ɒ - before the ʊ.

To my British ears the two recordings on the Cambridge page have very similar sounding vowels anyway. There actually seems more difference between the 'd' sounds!