/or/ distinctions: TOUR

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 4/14/2000 2:50:25 PM, stevek at SHORE.NET writes:

<< If you want to get technical /t schwar d / (schwar being the schwa with
the little tail). /trd/ for me would be a Czech word (well, the final d
would get devoiced) and the 'r' is of a different quality than
schwar. [Trd isn't a Czech word, but prd is (one of the very few that I
have natively).] >>

The IPA symbol for (stressed) schwar, as I recall, is a "3" with a little
hook coming off the upper right-hand corner of the "3"; since this is such an
exotic symbol, people seem increasingly to be using [r] to stand for the
stressed schwar (usually they put a little line under it to indicate that it
is a syllable). However, [ur] always seems to stand for the vowel [u]
followed by [r]. Yes, I beleive that Czech uses "r" in a similar way in the
standard orthography, but that is irrelevant to the point that I was trying
to make, i.e., in most American dialects, the vowel in TURD is schwar, not
/ur/.