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I am really not sure whether the word ´mother´ should be transcribed like this: ´mʌðə´ or like this ´mɒðə´. In my opinion, the second one sounds better. The word mother is similarly pronounced as for example ´hot´ = ´hɒt´, isn´t it?

Thank you for any help. :) Have a nice day!

MIa
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    Have you looked at any source, like a dictionary, to see what they say? – JeffUK Apr 23 '18 at 08:55
  • Yes, I did. You people are sometimes so mean. – MIa Apr 23 '18 at 08:57
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    It was a very straightforward question, I don't see how it's mean to ask you to help us help you.. What did that source say? What did you not understand about it, how can we help you understand that source better? – JeffUK Apr 23 '18 at 09:02
  • I thought there is some pattern, vowel A is always transcribed as /ɑ/ (as in father), vowel O (in word where O is obviously pronounced as A) it is transcribed with /ɑ/ (as in hot) and vowel U (again, in words where it is obviously pronounced as A) it is transcribed as /ʌ/ (as in cup).

    I looked to the dictionary, but I was not sure if it is not the American pronounciation (or other accent pronounciation).

     – MIa Apr 23 '18 at 09:12
  • Welcome to ELU, Mia. This place is for advanced questions on English language and usage. For simpler questions, there is [ell.se], which is especially useful to non-native speakers of the English language. Good Luck. – Kris Apr 23 '18 at 09:13
  • Kris, you think that a native speaker can´t have a trouble with the transcription? Well.. – MIa Apr 23 '18 at 09:14
  • Folks, please don't down vote newbies. – Kris Apr 23 '18 at 09:16
  • I do think so, even some non-native speakers who are familiar with the popular pronunciation. – Kris Apr 23 '18 at 09:17
  • I am sorry If a was mean, I just, sometimes it seems to be more reliable if you ask more people for their opinion. Sorry If my question was lame. – MIa Apr 23 '18 at 09:18
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    @Kris - whoever downvoted was within their rights to do so; if you hover over the downvote button, it reads "this question does not show any research effort." That is true, since I didn't know the answer either (I'm not familiar with IPA) and I found the answer in about five seconds. – SomethingDark Apr 23 '18 at 10:01
  • @SomethingDark, I found the answer myself in no time but I thought that this is the place where people can think about other possibilities or can analyse why is something like it is. That´s why I asked. I thought that maybe someone experienced could somehow explain to me the difference between two examples I gave, But thanks anyhow... – MIa Apr 23 '18 at 10:17
  • @MIa If you found the simple answer yourself in no time, that’s presumably not what you’re looking for here. If so, you should include that in the question and then add what exactly it is you are looking for. If you’re looking for an analysis of a why, tell us which why you find unclear. I think, from your earlier comment, your main confusion is that you seem to think the words father, hot, and cup have the same vowel. They don’t. In some dialects, father/hot is one vowel and cup another; in other dialects all three are distinct. But nowhere are they all the same. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Apr 23 '18 at 22:31

1 Answers1

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According to the Oxford English dictionary (at the bottom of the page), the correct transcription is

/ˈmʌðə/

The only difference between the British and American pronunciations is that Americans pronouce the r.

SomethingDark
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