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In Scotland the words "fern", "fir" and "fur" have different vowels in them while in most other accents the vowels are the same (and "fir" and "fur" are therefore homophones in most English accents). Based on rules I've inferred from Scottish peoples' speech, Wikipedia and the way speech synthesizers have been programmed (especially eSpeak), it seems to be that the "fern" vowel only occurs when spelled with er/ear and when it's fully stressed. For example, the eSpeak speech synthesizer with a Scottish accent pronounces the words "verse" and "university" with the "fern" vowel, but "universe" with the "fur" vowel as the syllable is not fully stressed.

So my first question is: if I have a sentence like "I liked HER shoes but I didn't like HIS shoes" where you the female personal pronoun is emphasised, do Scottish people use the FERN or FUR vowel? How about the word "hers"?

My last question is simply, how is the word "myrtle" with "yr" pronounced in a Scottish accent, with the FUR, FIR or FERN vowel? Based on the rules below, I would expect the "fur" vowel for "myrtle", but eSpeak (at least the version I have on my computer) uses the "fern" vowel as it's the default for exceptions that haven't been programmed a specific Scottish pronunciation.

As a side note, here are the rules of the fern/fir/fur vowel distinction that I've inferred from the sources and speakers I have had access to (but I've never seen them written down explicitly in plain English):

1. The FERN vowel is used only when fully stressed spelled with "er" or "ear".
2. The FIR vowel is used when spelled with "ir" regardless of stress.
3. The FUR vowel is used in every other situation.

I don't know if these are perfectly accurate, but I don't know a single exception for sure... except for "Berlin" which I've heard pronounced by one person with the FERN vowel and by another with the FUR vowel; eSpeak would need some serious reprogramming if one would want to force it to use the FERN vowel in that context.

tija
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  • "Berlin" is German and I suppose it should rightly be pronounced the way it's pronounced in German, not with a Scottish accent or any other way. (Standard New High German) IPA: [bɛɐˈliːn], [bɛʁˈliːn] (Wiktionary) The same source also lists several other pronunciations, including for the places in the US named Berlin. – Kris Jul 27 '18 at 11:19
  • @Kris: in a rhotic accent, like Scotland has, Berlin should have an "r" in it. Anything else is pretentious. Do you pronounce Paris as Paree, with a gutteral /ʁ/ when you're speaking English? – Peter Shor May 09 '20 at 18:26

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I would pronounce universe with an ER sound I'd pronounce myrtle as mirtle. Here are some exceptions I can think of - 'Thirty' is pronounced 'therty' in some accents 'First' is often be pronounced 'furst' 'Her' is usually pronounced hur,hir or something inbetween, never with an obvious EH sound.

Angus
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