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See this picture enter image description here (Source)

See the vowel "o"? I couldn't find any word in the English dictionary that has the sound /o/ alone without being part of a diphthong.

For example, in /ɡoʊ/ (go), the /ʊ/ stands right after /o/.

Are there any words like /ɡo/, /ko/ where the /o/ stands alone?

I feel that in English we can only have /oʊ/ and /o/ cannot stand alone. That is why my English teacher only teaches us to pronounce the diphthong /oʊ/. She doesn't teach the pronunciation of /o/.

Glorfindel
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Tom
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    It depends on your dialect. There are lots and lots of Americans who use /or/ in words where your dictionary has /ɔr/, like sort, port, tore, war, form – I'm one. See Wikipedia. (And that vowel chart also says /o/ is used for law in Australia and New Zealand, and for goat in Scotland and some dialects of American, although I'm not so sure you can trust that chart completely.) But if you're talking about standard American English or British English pronunciation, no. – Peter Shor Feb 03 '16 at 15:47
  • @PeterShor, why /ʌ/ in IPA chart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_diagram is in the "open-mid-back" position, but most English vowel chart the /ʌ/ is in "open-mid-central" position? – Tom Feb 03 '16 at 16:01
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    Because some RP speakers used to pronounce /ʌ/ in the open-mid-back position, but now that's very rare, and nowadays RP speakers pronounce it somewhere between the open-mid-central position and the position of /ɑ/. But nobody got around to changing the notation, the way they did for /əʊ/. – Peter Shor Feb 03 '16 at 16:04
  • @PeterShor, seem there is no standard Vowel chart, each researcher has his / her pwn voel chart slightly different from each other. – Tom Feb 03 '16 at 16:25
  • There is a standard official vowel chart. See this website. So really, for standard British English today, the symbol /ʌ/ should be replaced by the symbol /ɐ/. But replacements like this cause immense confusion, and people are reluctant to make them. – Peter Shor Feb 03 '16 at 16:32
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    Let me clarify that; there's no standard chart showing the vowel positions for English (and this differs substantially depending on the dialect). There's a standard official vowel chart showing where the IPA symbols are and the relationship between them. For any actual language, the idea is that you choose the IPA symbols closest to the positions of the vowels in that language. – Peter Shor Feb 03 '16 at 16:39
  • @PeterShor, so the position of symbol in IPA vowel chart is not absolute right? So, each language can have its own vowel chart & it can select the symbol that is similar to the ones in IPA chart but the position of that symbol maybe positioned a bit different (a bit higher/ lower/ forwarder/ back warder ). – Tom Feb 03 '16 at 16:47
  • @PeterShor, I thought IPA chart is absolute & every language have to force itself into the IPA chart. So this is wrong right? – Tom Feb 03 '16 at 16:48
  • @PeterShor Mainly true, but there's other considerations, such as the orthography of the language concerned too. – Araucaria - Him Feb 03 '16 at 17:03
  • I'm confused. Oxford lists the American English go as Pronunciation: /ɡō/ – Hot Licks Apr 04 '16 at 01:17
  • Oh no... so do I have to add more characters? – jamesqf Apr 04 '16 at 04:28
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    @HotLicks ō is not IPA. It's a symbol used to represent the so-called "long O" sound, which is diphthongized as indicated in the OP's diagram . – user0721090601 May 04 '16 at 03:20
  • Related. – tchrist Dec 11 '22 at 17:49

2 Answers2

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OED gives a list of English and American IPA symbols used in the dictionary.

/o/ does not appear as a standalone monophthong; it appears only as /oʊ/ and that is only in the "American" column (for goat). /o/ is not listed in British English at all.

The answer would appear to be No. In standard British and American English, there are no words like /ɡo/, /ko/ where the /o/ stands alone. It remains possible that certain dialects and regional accents in either variety could include /o/, but it would appear reasonable that there is no need to teach it.

Andrew Leach
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Long 'O' (and long 'A') are not true diphthongs. They merely have allophones that stray into other vowels because it is difficult or impossible to abruptly start the following consonant (or silence). True diphthongs transition from vowel to vowel to convey a meaning separate from either vowel alone.

AmI
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