American English Phonetics

6.3.4 Strong and weak GA /oʊ/

GA /oʊ/ begins somewhat further back than does AN /oˑ/, and does not end as close as the Dutch vowel. Also, depending on how you pronounce the Dutch vowel, the GA vowel may be more open.

Some words containing strong /oʊ/:
• go, open, smoke, yolk /joʊk/, comb /koʊm/, envelope, hotel
• coat, toast, road
• show, row, know
• soul, although
• toe, Joe
• sew (unusual spelling)

Weak GA /oʊ/ tends to be monophthongal, and may shade off toward a central quality ([ə]). On the analogy of the symbols /i/ and /u/, it would have been a good idea to write /o/ for weak /oʊ/, but the LPD does not have it, and we will follow that work here.

Some words with weak /oʊ/:
• window, fellow, follow, hollow
• tomato, potato, lotto, motto, Mephisto
• November, notation, momentous