American English Vowels /u/ versus /ʊ/

Refresh my memory on American English vowels /u/ versus /ʊ/. They are quite different rather than long-short.

1. Pronunciation

This YouTube video, Focus on /u/ and /ʊ/, shows how to pronounce them.

2. Pronunciation of oo

I organized the notes before, posted here.

大部分是发长音/uː/,记住发短音/ʊ/的词,其他的几乎都是发长音/uː/了。

/ʊ/

字母组合ook,如book, cook, look, shook, took.
字母组合ood,如wood, falsehood, good, stood. 但有两个很特殊,blood(/blʌd/), flood(/flʌd/).
其他,wool, foot.

/uː/

除了上述情况外,几乎都发长音/uː/,如fool, school; shoot, root; too, zoo; roof, proof; boom, room; noon, moon; troop, loop; choose, loose; tooth, smooth; groove.

(2)oor

oor发/ɔː/,/ɔr=ɔɚ/,如door, floor. 但有例外,如poor(/pʊr/), moor(荒野,停泊).

3 U u

(1)/juː/

重读开音节,如university, refuse, unique, universe, huge.

以-ute/-ude结尾的词,发/juː/
-ute,动词后缀,如attribute(/ə’trɪbjuːt/), institute. 但有例外,如minute(/’mɪnɪt/).
-ude,名词后缀-tude,表示性质、状态、程度,如latitude, longitude, altitude, attitude.

(2)/ʌ/

重读闭音节,如but, struck(/strʌk/), trust, run, brush, bucket, duck, bubble, luck.

(3)/ʊ/

重读闭音节,如put, push, pull, full, bull.

(4)/ə/

非重读音节,如support, suggest, autumn(/’ɔːtəm/), difficult.

(5)/uː/

l/r/j+u的开音节,u发/uː/

lu, 如blue, include, resolute(/’rezəluːt/, 坚决的), seclude(使隔离), ablution(洗礼), conclude.
ru,如rule, true, rude, scruple(/’skruːp(ə)l/, 有顾忌), prudent(/’pruːd(ə)nt/, 谨慎的), intruder(/ɪn’truːdə/).
ju, 如June. 很少含ju开音节的词。

(6)/jʊ/

如popular, January(/’dʒænjʊ’ɛri/).

4. /u/ vs /ʊ/

The following text is extracted from [2]:

/uː/

A word can’t end in stressed /ʊ/. In bold words that can’t be confused.

  • With “oo”: boot – choose – cool – fool – loose – moon – pool – root – school – soon – stool – too – tool
  • With “u” and magic e: absolute – include – June – rule
  • With “u”: brutal – conclusion – flu – truth
  • With “ew”: blew – brew – chew – crew – drew – screw – threw
  • With “ou”: group – soup – through – you – youth
  • With “o”: lose – move – tomb – who

/ʊ/

  • With “oo”: book – cook – foot – good – hook – look – shook – stood – took – wood – wool
  • With “u”: bull – bullet – bush – cushion – full – pudding – pull – push – put – sugar
  • With “ou”: could – would – should
  • With “o”: wolf – woman

Only a few consonants can follow /ʊ/.

  • /d/: could – good – hood – pudding – should – stood – wood – would
  • /g/: sugar
  • /k/: book – brook – cook – crook – hook – rook – shook – took
  • /l/: bull – bullet – full – pull – wolf – wool
  • /m/: woman
  • /ʃ/: bush – cushion – push
  • /t/: foot – put – soot

参考资料:
[1]YouTube: Focus on /u/ and /ʊ/
[2]Blog: Pronunciation exercises: /uː/ vs /ʊ/

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