How many phonemes in these words?
Hello guys,
Could you help me with these words, please? I want to know how many phonemes in them in British pronounciation, I tried to figure them out but I get confused. The words are: poison & squirrel.
Thank you in advance .

Question

Answer

poison =  /ˈpɔɪz(ə)n/   
If you count the individual phonemes, this makes six. The first syllable has a diphthong made up of the two phonemes ɔ + ɪ, so you could consider this to be one 'sound' if you like.  This transcription (taken from the Macmillan dictionary) suggests that the schwa /ə/ in the second syllable is sometimes dropped, but I would still count it.

squirrel = /ˈskwɪrəl/
This is seven phonemes and two syllables in BrE.

I hope that helps.

Answer

I wonder what "phoneme" means in your question. If it means almost the same as "syllable", I'd say that both of then have two.

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