The spelling of the word "WOPE" may seem confusing, but it can be explained through phonetic transcription. The initial letter "W" is pronounced as /w/, while the succeeding letters "O" and "P" are pronounced as /o/ and /p/ respectively. The final letter "E" is usually silent, but it changes the sound of the preceding vowel. In this case, it modifies the vowel "O" to produce the sound /ɔ/. Therefore, the correct pronunciation of "WOPE" is /wɔp/.