phonics experts -come and settle an argument

[sausagesandwich34]

scone it's an oldy but a goody!

pronounced to rhyme with cone or gone?

does the magic 'e' come into play?

does the magic 'e' even exist anymore?

Sorry, that should be changing spelling to more closely follow rules.

I did wonder, merrymouse! It seemswe are really saying the same thing (as do all Great Minds )

learnandsay the "ur" in surge is a vowel digraph and the "ear" in earth is a vowel trigraph ...you have said you say earth to rhyme with birth not ee (as in eel)-rth.

Maybe people with Scottish accents say earth differently- more like "air -uth"?
In "errand" I think the first e stands alone-e/rrand. Not er-rand.

I'm very sorry I asked! More confused than before now.

You can put letters together and call them anything you like. That doesn't change their sounds. I'll give you some examples of letter combinations which have genuinely fused together

th
sh
ch

in those examples it is no longer possible to tell where the individual letters start and end. In the case or urgent and earth the r sound is very audible. It's preceded by u in the first case and ea in the latter. Bundling combinations of letters up an giving them names doesn't change that fact.

learnand say you yourself have said you don't pronounce the as the sound in up or cup but as the in surge ...whether you like it or not is a vowel digraph and that isn't dependent on my liking but on linguistics.

So do you say "u" as in up and "r" as in rat?

How someone else has defined it makes no difference to the sounds that I hear. I can distinguish the u and the r in earth and urgent whereas I cannot distinguish the letters in th, or ch. I don't dislike the fact that someone has combined the letters and named them, it's just irrelevant and slightly misnamed given that r isn't a vowel.

I'm not sure why you think you wouldn't hear the "r" Euphemia but what I'm asking is it clearly distinct as a separate sound or combined with the to make "ur"

No, Euphemia, it's just a Home Counties, but not RP, accent.

All letters are combined in words, mrz. That's what a word is.

sɜːdʒ

"s" "ur" "j"

unfortunately MN won't accept the IPA

Thank you Euphemia!
That's what I've been trying to say (but not very effectively) the "ur" in earth is a distinct sound not articulated as separate sounds as "u" "r" but as "ur"

no the "3 " is the representation for "ur
www.antimoon.com/how/pronunc-soundsipa.htm

awe, oar (yes) although this one ends with an r sound
larva, lava (no) larvae (insect eggs) has an r in the middle
gnaw, nor (yes) although this one ends with an r sound