English Vowel Change Before Palatals and Alveopalatals

Many English speakers pronounce words such as cure and sure with the same vowel as in nurse. This occurs in both rhotic and non-rhotic varieties of English. The sound change only occurs before palatals and alveopalatals. In words such as poor and tour, this sound change does not occur. However, many speakers pronounce these words with the vowel in four and more.

The following words can be pronounced with the vowel of nurse:

bureau
cure
curious
during
fury
jury
mature
mural
pure
sure

In East Anglia, the cure-nurse merger results in identical pronunciations for word pairs such as cured/curd, fury/furry and pure/per. Two sound changes apply: one is the vowel change from a back vowel to a central vowel, and the other is yod-dropping. In North America, yod-dropping does not occur after palatals and alveopalatals.

Many vowels changes occur before post-vocalic /r/. Most English speakers pronounce the words first, nurse and word with the same vowel. Many speakers also use this vowel after palatals and alveopalatals. In East Anglia this vowel change applies with yod-dropping, but in North America no yod-dropping occurs.