ꜱǫᴜᴀʀᴇ lexical set

The ꜱǫᴜᴀʀᴇ lexical set is an English vowel set, defined by John Wells in his 1982 book Accents of English:

Original definition

Wells originally defined the set as follows:

(a)

care, share, bare, …;

air, fair, pair, …:

bear, pear, wear, swear, …;

heir, their, there, where, Ayr, Eyre, prayer, mayor;

(b)

scarce;

(c)

vary, canary, Mary, aquarium, various, rarity, area, Pharaoh, …;

dairy, prairie, fairy, …;

aerial, Dun Laoghaire, Eire.

Pronunciation

Words in this set are pronounced with the ꜱǫᴜᴀʀᴇ vowel phoneme /eə(r)/.

Spelling

May be ⟨are⟩, ⟨ear⟩, ⟨air⟩, ⟨aer⟩, ⟨eir⟩, ⟨ere⟩

Phonograms	Words	Notes
⟨are⟩	care, share, bare,
⟨air⟩	air, fair, pair,
⟨ear⟩	bear, pear, wear, swear, …;
⟨eir⟩	heir, their
⟨ere⟩	there, where
⟨ayr⟩	Ayr
⟨eyre⟩	Eyre
⟨ayer⟩	prayer
⟨ayor⟩	mayor
⟨ar⟩	scarce, vary, canary, Mary, aquarium, various, rarity, area, Pharaoh
⟨air⟩	dairy, prairie, fairy
⟨aer⟩	aerial
⟨aire⟩	Dun Laoghaire
⟨eir⟩	Eire