I’ve never been able to hear the final schwa of centring diphthongs when followed by a fully pronounced ‘r’, as in ‘hearing’, ‘Europe’, or the old-fashioned diphthongal variant of ‘hairy’. I’ve been demonstrated these diphthongs in this context by my (young, native, Southern British) English teachers in careful speech, but I’ve never heard it in natural speech.

I know your views on SQUARE, NEAR and CURE, and how each of these are disappearing due to their instability. But I suspect that where a native speaker hears a diphthong, I can’t hear one. Can you point to some audio clips where (even in dated English) these schwas are actually fully pronounced? Or are dictionary transcriptions also mythical in this respect? Is there a phonological rule that states that the schwa is lost in the presence of a following /r/? Or that the schwa and the /r/ merge into one segment? Or does the schwa become ultra-short? I’ve searched Cruttenden’s revision of Gimson’s Pronunciation of English, Wells’ Accents of English, Roach’s English Phonetics and Phonology, and more, but I found no such phonological rule or even a comment on this, so I suspect it’s lack of ear-training on my part.

Thanks a million!! (even if you don’t get round to replying)
Hernán