Does the word 'serve' contain a monophthong or diphthong?

[TaiwanPofLee]

Is the pronunciation of 'er' in the word 'serve' a monophthong or diphthong?

 

[emsr2d2]

Please remember to put your pronunciation questions in the right section of the forum - Pronunciation and Phonetics. I think this is the third post of yours that I've moved out of Ask A Teacher.

 

[Roman55]

You need to specify which variety of English you're talking about. It's usually a monophthong in BrE, because for the most part, BrE is non-rhotic.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Please remember to put your pronunciation questions in the right section of the forum - Pronunciation and Phonetics. I think this is the third post of yours that I've moved out of Ask A Teacher.

In standard American English, neither. Both E's are silent. We pronounce it srv.

There are regional U.S. variations, however, such as suv (especially in the south) and soiv (especially in the northeast).

 

[TaiwanPofLee]

In standard American English, neither. Both E's are silent. We pronounce it srv.

There are regional U.S. variations, however, such as suv (especially in the south) and soiv (especially in the northeast).

Thank you for your response, Charlie. Do you mean the word "serve" does not contain a vowel in standard American English?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

It has two E's. In standard American, they are not pronounced. They are silent. There is not a monothong or dipthong.

In British and in some variations of American, the first E is pronounced. Its pronunciation varies from place to place.

The second E is never pronounced anywhere by anyone.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't understand your answer. Of course the first e is pronounced in AmE. It sounds just like the e in "her". The second e is silent. There is no way to pronounce "srv".

 

[emsr2d2]

The same applies to BrE. We don't pronounce the final "e". The word sounds as if it finishes with a "v". However, the first part of the word clearly contains an "e" as part of "ser". As Mike said, it's not possible to say "srv".

The only difference, for me, is that in AmE you will hear the "r" and in most regional BrE accents, you won't.

Click HERE for several pronunciations of "serve" on Forvo. There are 2 AmE pronunciations and 1 Canadian English, and in both of them you can clearly hear the "r" sound. If you then play the BrE pronunciation (by me!) you will not hear the "r" sound.

 

[mandrews01]

In the BrE pronunciation the first 'e' is a long monophthong. It rhymes with her, fur and bird.

Michael Andrews