To think the poll is pronounced poll...

[peachypips]

Not pole! Settle an argument between me, DH and lodger!

People change their name by deed poll, not deed pole, surely?

I've only ever heard it pronounced "deed pole".

I have now confused myself over how I pronounce toll. I don't know when I pronounce it to rhyme with doll and when I pronounce it to rhyme with role.

Fuck this shit. I'm learning French.

My Toll is inconsistent.

For whom the bell tolls - tolls is like dolls
For Toll gate/bridge it's like Tole/Pole.

I never noticed that before.

There was a similar discussion recently about pronunciations ...

Some folk insisting that the "h" in wheel is silent ... except it isn't. Wheel, weal and we'll can all be pronounced ever so slightly differently.

(Any Mock the Week fans will know that Dara O'Briain does almost over pronounce the "h". Which may be something to do with Gaelic ?)

Poll is Poll (as in Doll) here, not Pole.

I don't really have an accent. I have lived in quite a few areas of the UK, but as far as I am aware I don't sound like any of them. Just vaguely "southern" I guess.

Surely this has to be a windup!

Some folk insisting that the "h" in wheel is silent ... except it isn't.

Except it is

😂

Dictionaries have it pronounced 'pole' so that's correct.

There is rarely one single correct pronunciation of a word though and what becomes apparent on these threads is that a lot of people refuse to accept regional accents and thus pronunciations differ.

I pronounce it both ways dependent on what I’m referring to.

In reference to a polling station or election poll I pronounce it to rhyme with “pole”. In reference to the top of someone/something’s head I would pronounce it to rhyme with “doll”.

They are homographs like read and read, bow and bow etc. They are spelt the same but are pronounced differently depending on the context.

But there is a pronunciation given in the dictionary.

My aunt pronounced recipe re-sip. Is that a valid pronunciation or is she just wrong?

Another vote for "pole". I've lived all over the UK and never heard "poll"

Shadow the differentiation due to accents is to do with different vowel sounds - dropping a whole syllable from the end of a word is not a matter of opinion / regional variation!

I say it rhymes with doll.

Troll also rhymes with doll, not pole.

But the standard pronunciation of poll is pole. Some people pronounce it as in doll but there has been no regional bias on this thread, just a few people. I think they are just mispronouncing it.

I have a friend who’s from the north, who says from where I’m sat. It’s a regional dialect but it isn’t correct standard English.

I’m very interested in dialects and think they should be supported but there is a correct pronunciation.

I’m very interested in dialects and think they should be supported but there is a correct pronunciation.

What's the correct pronunciation of "bath", or "grass" ?

Ahh shit now I don't even know how I say anything at all any more.

I'm heartened to see that there are some poll-ers even if we are in the minority. My mum speaks in the RP style so maybe that's where it comes from.

I genuinely had no idea people pronounced poll, troll etc any other way than to rhyme with doll until last night!

Well, the Oxford dictionary uses RP, so gives the pronunciation of bath as bɑːθ, but personally I prefer bæθ as it works better phonetically. It really does depend on which dictionary you read. Both are acceptable as they are both widely used.

If you can find any dictionary that gives the pronunciation of poll as pɒl, then I'd be very impressed. It's not standard English and not a dialect either. Sorry, OP!

Even weirder when we have these threads on MN where some posters insist "chimley" is correct where they're from. It may be a widespread error in some areas but that doesn't make it "alternative-correct"

Suppose it depends where your from, I'm in northwest and I say pole tax, I know it's spelt poll tax though. Doll is doll and dole is dole

@QuimReaper what is chimley??

@kaytee87 think they mean chimney

Trole
Tole
Drole
Sorry you are wrong😀 never heard anyone pronounce them like you do.

My mum says kekkle instead of kettle so don't worry about it OP

@Willow2017 what's a Drole please? Never heard of that word