# 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:** 3
**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, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/41 "2024-01-09T21:20:42Z")
My clip above actually has an example you can hear with a monophthong o which the presenter likens to how people in Minnesota might speak. ---
**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, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/42 "2024-01-09T23:47:28Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 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: OK now **that** yes, there is a definite difference. If that’s what is meant by /o/, then yes I always use /oʊ/. That just seems so confusing because just saying the letter “O” as in LMNOP, it would be identical to /oʊ/. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/43 "2024-01-10T00:06:08Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > The only words that immediately spring to mind as “oʊ” words are “boa” (like a boa constrictor or a feather boa) The English name of the Italian city “Genoa,” which always strikes me as incredibly awkward even in English when Italian has given us “Genova” which is smoother in both languages. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/44 "2024-01-10T00:20:53Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > 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. These are all the same sound, transliterated as “ou”. 東京 t **ou** ky **ou** どうもありがとう d **ou** mo arigat **ou** 相撲 sum **ou**. There is another way of writing the long “o” sound in Japanese, transliterated as “oo” (for example in the word 遠い t **oo** i) but it sounds exactly the same to me. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/45 "2024-01-10T00:23:21Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > and maybe a (pronounced ah) although I can’t think of an example right now. お母さん okaasan = mom ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/46 "2024-01-10T01:30:10Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > 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”. Is that a typo for _cola_? ---
**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 10, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/47 "2024-01-10T03:01:42Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > @AHunter3 : are you from the Upper Midwest? My parents are southern and I spend childhood half of it in Georgia and half in New Mexico. Although I spent my first two years up north in Massachusetts and my folks always said I had a bit of a northern accent mixed in. ---
**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 10, 2024, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/48 "2024-01-10T03:45:41Z")
I meant just the word stem _Kohl-_ [koʊl] without suffixes. ---
**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 10, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/49 "2024-01-10T03:59:08Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > > > and maybe a (pronounced ah) although I can’t think of an example right now. > > お母さん okaasan = mom Of course. Brain freeze (I tell myself). ---
**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 10, 2024, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/50 "2024-01-10T06:48:54Z")
Wiktionary has a clip of [_koud_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/koud#Afrikaans) (though pronounced more abruptly and harsher than I would) but doesn’t include Afrikaans _woud_, only [Dutch](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/woud). Which is not pronounced the same, it’s got more “-au-” in it than the Afrikaans does. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/51 "2024-01-10T09:07:44Z")
Apologies for posting somewhat speculatively in FQ, but I think it is highly likely that Indonesian speakers, depending on their regional accent, use the “oʊ” sound. Example: there is a verb, “mau,” that means either “want” or “about to do” something. It’s pronounced differently, with no changes in meaning, depending on where in Indonesia you live. As a native English speaker learning Indonesian, I was taught that pronouncing it “mow” (like “mow the lawn” in English) or “mao” (rhymes with “cow”) was totally fine. So I think it’s likely that the oʊ sound is common in some areas. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/52 "2024-01-10T15:20:00Z")
It’s just a diphthong. OU. Koulu, soutaa, poutaa, all Finnish words. Finnish has nearly all the diphthongs in use, except that there is vowel harmony: YÖ but UO, other than that, UI, YI, OI, EI, ÄI and ÖI all exist. With U much the same. ---
**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 10, 2024, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/53 "2024-01-10T15:46:01Z")
> [@TeroSunbear](#): > > It’s just a diphthong. OU. Koulu, soutaa, poutaa, all Finnish words Those aren’t using quite the same diphthong as //oʊ//, though. Finnish //o̞u̯// is _close_, but not the same (to my ears). There’s a tiny bit more of a drawl to it. ---
**Author:** ![TeroSunbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terosunbear/32/14748_2.png) [@TeroSunbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeroSunbear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/54 "2024-01-10T17:01:44Z")
Vowels have a lot more variation among English speakers. Though spoken Finnish varies, it is a small area. I’m fascinated just by the word burrito in English. I don’t know what the vowel is when I say it. It is not u of burro in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2024, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/55 "2024-01-10T17:15:15Z")
> [@TeroSunbear](#): > > I’m fascinated just by the word burrito in English. I don’t know what the vowel is when I say it. It is not u of burro in Spanish. It’s the STRUT vowel ʌ or the schwa ə, the same as the u in “butter” One area that has some really interesting pure vowel realisations of the GOAT vowel is the north of England. Some areas of Yorkshire have a back vowel ɔː so that “boat” sounds like “bought”. But some areas have a very unusual rounded front vowel - “coach” sounds like “kerch”. ---
**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 10, 2024, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/56 "2024-01-10T17:24:46Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > > [@TeroSunbear](#): > > > > I’m fascinated just by the word burrito in English. I don’t know what the vowel is when I say it. It is not u of burro in Spanish. > > It’s the STRUT vowel ʌ or the schwa ə, the same as the u in “butter” bɚ ri to Americans in particular are fond of the ɚ sound. It’s essentially an R vowel. Err… ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/57 "2024-01-11T15:01:15Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > 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. The “long o” sound does not effectively become (i.e. sound like) a dipthong in Japanese. Full stop. I think a lot of people are confusing “long” and “short” vowels in Japanese, with English long and short vowels (no scare quotes). The only difference between Japanese “long” and “short” vowels vowels is the length of the sound, not a difference in pronunication. If you listen to the “Tō” and “to” sounds in 東京都 Tōkyōto ( Tokyo Metropolis), there is no difference at all, except the first “o” in “Tō” is twice the length of the last “o” in “to”. It’s the same with other vowels such as おじいさん ojiisan, grandfather and おじさん ojisan, uncle, お母さん okaasan, mother, 岡さん okasan (Mr. or Ms. Oka) This is something the most [English speakers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_length) are not used to. > [@](#): > > In [linguistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics), **vowel length** is the perceived length of a [vowel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel) sound: the corresponding physical measurement is [duration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Length_(phonetics)). In some languages vowel length is an important [phonemic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemic) factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, for example in [Arabic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_phonology#Vowels), [Estonian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonian_phonology), [Finnish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_phonology#Length), [Fijian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fijian_language#Phonology), [Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonology#Vowels), [Kannada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kannada#Vowels), [Kyrgyz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyz_phonology), [Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_phonology#Vowels), [Malayalam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam#Vowels), [Old English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English_phonology#Vowels), [Scottish Gaelic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_phonology#Vowels), [Tamil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language) and [Vietnamese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_phonology#Vowels). > > While vowel length alone does not change word meaning in most dialects of modern [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language), it is said to do so in a few dialects, such as [Australian English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English), [Lunenburg English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunenburg_English), [New Zealand English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English), and [South African English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_English). As @hibernicus notes above, Japanese usually write the second “o” sound with a う “u” and sometimes with an お “o” but this doesn’t change the Japanese pronunication. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2024, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/58 "2024-01-11T15:23:01Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > That strikes me as badly wrong, regardless of where you found it listed that way. Although of course that’s based on how I pronounce (and hear others pronounce) those three words. Unless you live in certain parts of Scotland, Ireland, northern England, or the Caribbean, you are almost certainly incorrect. Like nearly all English speakers, you didn’t realize you had been pronouncing this phoneme as a diphthong your whole life, until you had to learn a language (like Spanish, and many, many, others) that have the mid-vowel, “pure” o sound, and they had to keep telling you to stop moving your lips into a pout, until finally, one day, you stopped doing this. ETA: Also Minnesota, the Dakotas, and part of Wisconsin, doncha know. ETA again: BigT already noted this, even with the same tag phrase! ---
**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 11, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/59 "2024-01-11T15:45:14Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > and they had to keep telling you to stop moving your lips into a pout, until finally, one day, you stopped doing this Exactly. Hungarian has a similar thing with o and ó. The second is a long o, or /o:/ and is often heard by English speakers as an English “long o”, but it is a monophthong. German, too, has an /o:/ as in the word _kohl_, which is pronounced with a pure /o:/, and not quite like the name “Cole.” ---
**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 11, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820/60 "2024-01-11T18:25:42Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Like nearly all English speakers, you didn’t realize you had been pronouncing this phoneme as a diphthong your whole life That’s certainly possible, as I grew up thinking the English “long i sound” was a pure vowel, and it’s not. But you can’t sing or otherwise prolong it precisely because it is a diphthong and not a single sound – you either end up singing (or saying ) the first part – “aaaaa” – or the end part — “eeeee” (and your choir direction usually prefers you stay on “aaaa” until just before the cutoff). Now, for the “o” sound in question, consider the song “O Magnum Mysterium”, the Tomas Luis de Victoria version from the 16th century. [Take a listen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjTbXgIdOtU). That prolonged “o” is not a diphthong; if it were, the singers could not keep singing “Ooooooooooooooo” like that, just as with the long i sound. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-english-the-only-language-that-uses-the-o-sound/995820.md?page=4)