Vowels CURE

When orthographically represented by ure and our, the CURE vowel is realized as /(j)ɔ/, as in [kjɔ, pjɔ, lɔ, ʃɔ, ma'tʃɔ, tɔ, gɔd/gɔt] cure, pure, lure, sure, mature, tour, gourd. There is an interesting split with words having the orthographic sequence urV: /ɔ/ occurs when V is preceded by a free base as in [aʃɔrans] assurance (assure + ance), surety, security, maturity; and a spelling-derived /u/ occurs when V is followed by a bound base, as in curious [kjuriɔs], jury [ʤuri], mural, plural, rural. When the second member of the CURE diphthong is the agentive or comparative er, the diphthong is rendered in CamE as /ua/; e.g. [njua, trua, skrua, sua] newer, truer, screwer, suer. Finally, when the second member results from Vowel Reduction, the pronunciation of this second member in CamE corresponds to the underlying strong form, or to the vowel suggested by the spelling; e.g. [anual, fluεnt, kɔntinuɔs] annual, fluent, continuous.

Note the following miscellaneous realizations: your [jua, ja]; yours [juɔs], poor [puɔ], Europe .

As with NEAR above, the splits observed above warrant the re-arrangement of the CURE set altogether into several sets. CURE will be maintained for words in ure, our, and urV when V is preceded by a free base, pronounced /ɔ/. cUrious will be the convention for words in urV where V is preceded by a bound base, pronounced /u/. TRUER will be the label for agentives and comparatives in uer, pronounced /ua/. And TRUANT will be adopted for cases where the second member of RP /ʊə​/ results from vowel reduction; TRUANT words in CamE are pronounced /ua, uε, uɔ/ depending on the spelling.