Vowel systems NURSE

With NURSE words, as with the other /r/-sets, we have clearly to take account of /r/-less as well as /r/-ful dialects. Where /r/ is preconsonantal, we cannot distinguish with complete confidence between an early /r/-deletion, mainly affecting sibilants but also to a lesser extent other coronals, which had taken place before the sixteenth century (Wells 1982: 222), and the later general 18^th century loss of /r/ in word-final and preconsonantal environments. The fact remains that pre-consonantal loss is only evidenced before coronal sounds.

Firstly, /r/-less forms:

The same vaccilation between /o/ and /a/ as in the STRUT set appears here. And secondly, /r/-full forms: