how do you pronounce tortoise

[GenieGenealogy]

(Please, no posts about vowel sounds and rhotic accents and the rest of it which has been hashed over so many times).

I was listening to a podcast from a company called Tortoise Media. The host - who is from London - says "tor-tuss". I am Scottish and would never in a million years say it that way, it's tor-toys to rhyme with turquoise. Is this a regional thing? And if other people are saying "tor-tuss" why is the colour not tur-qwuss?

Tor toyce
Tor toice

I’m in the midlands born in 66 it’s tor-tuss

I’m from the north and I say tor toys. My husband is from the south and he says tor tuss.

They just said tor-tuss on Radio 4's Nature Table.

In America, they are likely to pronounce it turtle, which really confused me, because to me, turtles are aquatic with flippers, and tortoises are land-based with feet.

Can't remember whether terrapins have flippers or feet, but it's okay, because they're pronounced terra-pin.

I'm a tor-tuss, por-puss, tur-quoyz (not tur-kwahz) sort of person originally from Dorset.

English spelling/pronunciation links are often inconsistent (like all the words ending -ough) - I am glad I didn't have to learn it as a foreign language.

Same here, another one in the midlands that pronounces it that way.

Scottish - tor-toys

Our school drama group was doing Alice in Wonderland and the kids struggled with a bit that said "Why did you call him tortoise?"
"Because he taught us:

It just didn't work in our accent 😅

Tortus. Southeast.

Same here.

I don't think I've ever heard it pronounced Tor-toys.

You surely don't believe English pronunciation rules are as reliable and straightforward as that?

Why would you pronounce 'would' as 'wood'? You don't say 'mould' as 'mood'.

I’m Scottish and say tor-toys. Husband is from Kent and he says Tor-tuss.

Other pp’s from west mids also seem to say tor-tuss, and some pp’s from east mids also seem to say tor-tuss, but I’m from between west mids and east mids, and it is tor-toice!

Not British but from the Anglosphere - have only ever heard tort-us seriously. I must admit I thought tort-oyse was a joke pronunciation 🫣, I've only ever heard in in the UK in a taking the piss type manner.

Tortuss, in the south.

Same here! I never heard Tort-oyse till I moved to the UK. I also assumed it was a joke akin to Mrs Bouquet (Bucket).

Come to Scotland and you'll find that tor-toys is the normal pronunciation 😁

Same, South Wales

Tor-tuss and Tur-kwoyz (brought up in the West Country and now live in Surrey).

I have heard turquoise pronounced as tur-kwahs, which sounds very odd to me.

This

As I posted earlier, we really struggled with this bit in our school production because we say tor-toys 😃

Me too. As in the Porpuss and the Carpenter.

The Lewis Carroll line doesn't work on two levels in my Scottish accent though. Scottish people whether they say tor-toys or tor-tuss do pronounce the R in the word and the first part is torrrrr not toh. So doesn't sound like taught. And then if they say the -toys ending it doesn't work there either. Like I said upthread, we're more than used to rhymes or lines in books which are supposed to work but just don't unless you mangle your own accent or way of speaking.

Scarf/giraffe, indoors/claws, paw/poor etc etc.

@GenieGenealogy Me too. I suppose the people who are saying they pronounce it as "tor-russ" actually say "something like "taw-tuss" otherwise the "taught us" thing wouldn't work.

Tortoise- tor-toys
Porpoise- por-poys

Oh God - reading rhyming stories that don't rhyme to infants was a nightmare.
Thanks Julia Donaldson. Not. 🙄

Tortuss and porpuss, North West England

You get the same effect in Chaucer many of whose rhymes don’t work in modern English accents as the rhymes aren’t the same. You need to read him with a West Country accent and some knowledge of French for it to make sense. And to some of Shakespeare’s rhymes don’t work either.

Oh God - reading rhyming stories that don't rhyme to infants was a nightmare.
Thanks Julia Donaldson. Not.

But isn’t that part of learning how verse and language works? Some poetry intentionally uses half rhymes/slant rhymes - love/move, swarm/worm etc - a subtler music to avoid predictability.