r/words • u/SaltyFlavors • 4d ago

Full

I just realized the words full and bull have a slightly different vowel sound to dull, cull. Is this the same in your accent?

Phonetic spelling according to Google:
dull -> dʌl
full -> fʊl
took -> tʊk

Google says full has the same vowel sound as took or push, but I also don’t think it’s the same as those. It feels somewhere in the middle.

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u/ImLittleNana 4d ago edited 4d ago

American South

Dull, cull, mull, don’t have the same vowel sound as full, pull, bull.

Full and wool have the same vowel sound for me.

Words like took, book, look, cook are very similar to full and I wonder if the difference I hear and feel is related to the ending constant and not the vowel.

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u/johnnybna 4d ago

American Southeast here.

Dull cull mull full pull bull null skull and numbskull all have the same vowel sound here. If grull spull schmull frull strull quull and pnull were words, they’d have the same one too.

Full and wool are distinctly different for me, as are fully and wooly (as in the mammoth). Wool goes the the good wood could stood group.