# Is English the only language that uses the "oʊ" sound? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2024, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820 "2024-01-09T08:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/21 "2024-01-09T16:35:41Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Does “Hebrew, as spoken by most American Jews” count as a dialect? Which words were you thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/22 "2024-01-09T16:37:06Z")
Native speaker of California English. I can’t make the pure “o” sound unless I really sit and concentrate, which is what reveals my Americanness in all the other languages I speak. It’s so ingrained that “long o” makes the sound as in go, boat, etc., that words like Spanish _no_ or French _eau_ come out as a diphthong. Since this is common, I suspect a lot of resources geared toward English speakers just treat /oʊ/ and /o/ as if they were interchangeable, which they are in our language. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/23 "2024-01-09T16:39:59Z")
“Boker Tov!” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/24 "2024-01-09T16:40:52Z")
Yes, but the auditory examples are in conflict to the examples that were used to teach me when I learned IPA. oʊ is by definition a diphthong. If it were not, it would be represented by a single symbol, not two. The way one identifies a diphthong is by attempting to make the sound continuously, and realizing you cannot — for example the sound we were taught in elementary school as the “long I” as in right, white, eye, is a diphthong and you can’t make it as a continuous sound. You’re either on the a sound or the I sound, if you try to say (or sing) it. I make the vowel sound in boat, owe, total, oh, etc as a continous-capable sound that does not vary. It is not a diphthong. It also does not sound like the auditory example on the page which is more akin to the vowel sound in bought, caught, moment (the ɔ sound), as I was taught it. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/25 "2024-01-09T16:44:36Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “Boker Tov!” That’s fair, Americans do say Boaker Tove ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/26 "2024-01-09T16:54:30Z")
… it may well be that the folks who taught me IPA were ‘Americanizing’ the sounds, whether knowingly or not. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/27 "2024-01-09T17:29:19Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > > [@AHunter3](#): > > > > The only words that immediately spring to mind as “oʊ” words are “boa” (like a boa constrictor or a feather boa) and the constellation Boötes. > > I’m not sure what your accent is, but this page gives numerous examples of the oʊ sound that you can click on to hear. Most of these are US accents. > > over, older, going, social, almost, also > > [Examples of the Vowel [oʊ]](https://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~kjohnson/English_Phonetics/vowel_ow.html) > > (Among their examples older doesn’t sound quite like the oʊ sound to me, but it’s quite subtle.) Most of those (except for 3, 6 and 12 with the heavy accents) just sound like they are saying the letter “o”. I don’t see what the difference is supposed to be between oʊ and O. Ok looking more on that site, I can’t even find a list for the vowel “o”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/28 "2024-01-09T18:01:52Z")
Here’s a decent primer of diphthong /oʊ/ and monophonic /o/ in English (and yes, it does occasionally appear in English). Note the example with “Oh no, I gotta go home” said with all diphthong o’s vs monophonic o’s at about 1:25: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2IghYZEiS9o/maxresdefault.jpg "Diphthong /oʊ/ and Monophthong /o/") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IghYZEiS9o) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/29 "2024-01-09T18:03:02Z")
Oooh, more than that, no non-diphthong representations exist for what school called long i either. aɪ buy, aisle, isle How would oooh be represented? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/30 "2024-01-09T18:04:11Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I can confirm that is correct. For the short vowels, yes. But they have long vowel sounds, and have a writing system that accommodates long vowel sounds in their own language, not just o, but the e sound (written in roman letters as i), the eh sound (written in roman letters as e) and maybe a (pronounced ah) although I can’t think of an example right now. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/31 "2024-01-09T18:30:09Z")
Back to the OP: [Dialects and regiolects in Germany](https://media.springernature.com/lw685/springer-static/image/chp%3A10.1007%2F978-3-030-02438-3_173/MediaObjects/459637_1_En_173_Fig1_HTML.png) The triangle marked “Northern Bavarian” and probably all transitional zones around it have it. In Nuremberg (in the horizontally striped area to the west), _Kohle_ sounds exactly like English “coal”. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/32 "2024-01-09T18:51:06Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Oooh, more than that, no non-diphthong representations exist for what school called long i either. > > aɪ buy, aisle, isle > > How would oooh be represented? u booze = buz coop = kup ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/33 "2024-01-09T19:06:15Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Long “o” sounds, which effectively become “ou” are present in those words (not “sumo” though, I’m pretty sure) in the original Japanese, and lots of other words. Most non-native Japanese speakers who pronounce those words would just use short “o” because they don’t know which o’s are supposed to be long. “Domo” for example, spelled to emphasize pronunciation for English speakers, would be “doumo.” I believe this is not correct. While that word indeed has a long vowel and a pitch accent in Japanese, that does not make the pronunciation oʊ. Furthermore, “doumo” is a systematic _transliteration_ of the spelling どうも; there is no diphthong there. (“o” + “u” just means the “o” is long) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/34 "2024-01-09T19:18:49Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > > “Boker Tov!” > > That’s fair, Americans do say Boaker Tove That does not correspond to any Israeli (= Sephardic), Mishnaic, or Classical pronunciation. It may well be a subtype of “Ashkenazi Hebrew”. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/35 "2024-01-09T19:21:32Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > That does not correspond to any Israeli (= Sephardic), Mishnaic, or Classical pronunciation Oh, I agree - but if I were doing an impression of an American tourist speaking Hebrew, that’s how I’d say it. I wasn’t thinking of American Jews as in Chabadniks, they have yet another novel set of pronunciations! ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/36 "2024-01-09T20:34:02Z")
Afrikaans uses the /œʊ̯/ vowel, but I find it indistinguishable from English /oʊ/ myself. For instance, the Afrikaans _koud_ (cold) and _woud_ (forest) are pronounced like English _coat_ and _vote_. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/37 "2024-01-09T21:04:34Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Afrikaans uses the /œʊ̯/ vowel, but I find it indistinguishable from English /oʊ/ myself. For instance, the Afrikaans _koud_ (cold) and _woud_ (forest) are pronounced like English _coat_ and _vote_. ⁢ Interesting. Because I would say that /œʊ̯/ would be about halfway between the General American /oʊ/ and the RP /əʊ/, both of which are heard as the G **OA** T vowel. Do you know of any clips where people say those Afrikaans words? I’m curious if my ears, being more used to General American, would also not hear a difference. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/38 "2024-01-09T21:10:07Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > “doumo” is a systematic _transliteration_ of the spelling どうも; there is no diphthong there. (“o” + “u” just means the “o” is long) I didn’t say it was a diphthong, I said it was a long o that effectively becomes (i.e. sounds like) a diphthong. This was in support of my assertion that there are long o sounds in Japanese (outside of borrowed words, which have all kinds of weirdness). I don’t think we’re actually disagreeing about that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/39 "2024-01-09T21:19:08Z")
@AHunter3 : are you from the Upper Midwest? Because I would associate using [o] instead of [oʊ] with that accent. In particular, I associate it with the phrase “Doncha know?” Wikipedia mentions the [monophthongization](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stein-stine-or-steen/46682) here: > **[North-Central American English | Phonology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Central_American_English#Phonology)** > > Not all of these characteristics are unique to the North-Central region: ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/40 "2024-01-09T21:19:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Tokyo? Sumo? Domo Arigato? Japanese actually has a short ‘o’ and 2 other diphthong forms of ‘o’. _Tokyo_ and _Domo Arigato_ fit what the OP is asking, _Sumo_ does not. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820.md?page=3)