How do you pronounce Tortoise?

[Veryverycalmnow]

I noticed yesterday, when talking about this animal in a group, that everyone was pronouncing it 'toytoyce' while I would say, 'tortuss'.
I wonder if anyone finds this remotely interesting😆 or has a different way of saying it?

I'm a tor-tuss person but, also, turtles and tortoises are different animals. Similar but different 🙂🐢

Tor-toize.

Tor toyce
Toy is silly, it's closely spelt tor.
Toise isn't tuss, the sound is too short for the oi in the middle

I say tor-toys. I’m Scottish (which may make a difference here).

The Alice in wonderland joke doesn’t work in my accent at all.

I kind of feel it might be the same kind of pronunciation difference you get with forehead. I say four-head not forrid.

What, like a thick New York accent?

Tor-toyse and I do say it a lot as I have 2! For those saying turtle is incorrect though, tortoises are part of the turtle family so tortoises are turtles but turtles are not tortoises.

We say tor-twaaaz but only in fun. It would be tor-toyce most of the time but shortened a bit to tor-tuss if saying eg ‘tortoise and the hare’ . Or tor-tusses for more than one.

Tor-toys.

Another Scot here.

"We called him Tortoise, because he taught us". That's how it was pronounced when Alice in Wonderland was written.

Not helpful but interesting

Who on earth would pronounce it 'toy-toyce' though? That’s just crazy. LOL at the Noo Yoik idea.

(tortoise owner of many years here, and it’s tor-tuss all the way, fwiw)

I've never heard tor tuss -how do you get -uss from the digraph 'oi' (which makes an 'oy' sound)? I guess it's a regional thing?

That's a fairly irrelevant question in a language which has at least 5 different and perfectly standards ways of pronouncing the letters 'ough' though, surely?

I was brought up in the SE (Home Counties) and speak pretty RP. I say 'tortuss', as did pretty much everyone I knew, I think. As I've relocated around England I've heard lots of tortuss and tortoise, but pretty randomly mixed in different areas.

If you're wondering why I've noticed... I'm not a tortoise obsessive, I'm an MFL teacher and routinely ask kids what pets they have!

I'm a tor-tuss person it makes no sense to how it's spelled but loads of words are like that. My dd6 couldn't understand why door was pronounced dor instead of the oo sound in loop!!?

And it's 'sloff' and '4head' and 'scon' by the way 😂

I would use the Alice in Wonderland pronunciation; tort us

I say it very quickly and quietly and aim for a cross between the two pronunciations 😆

Where are you, OP? I've definitely heard it regularly somewhere, possibly wales?

Toy-toyss

Same!

Anyone remember George from Blue Peter?

I say tor-tus. I've heard people say tor-toyce, but I've never heard anyone pronounce the first syllable as toy instead of tor.

That’s how it was pronounced by Lewis Carroll when Alice was written, no doubt the areas of the country that currently pronounce it torTOISE , as my Scottish husband does, were doing it then as well and were as baffled by the joke as I was by all the stuff about the caucus race, and the joke about not cutting someone once you have been introduced to them, which I only got about 30 years after I first read it…Sorry, but of an Alice diversion there.
I also pronounce Scone to rhyme with Gone as otherwise the joke “What’s the fastest cake in the world” doesn’t work!

I say Tor-Toyce, but I'm reading Toy-Toice and can only think of Mickey from Rocky and the way he says "goyjus"

one of my kids was recently astonished to learn that a tortuss and a tortoys were the same, and it turned out had developed a clear idea of how they differed from each other!
nb they are not tiny At All - early teens!!
tortuss here.
i think this must the the only work in which the sound -uh- is spelled -oi- though. It is bonkers…

Not sure why the wine came up, but cheers and good morning!

Tor toise

Tortuss because he taught us, is what I learned as a child.
I can only make Toytoyse work if I use a Birmingham accent or Toytuss in a New York accent. It doesn't come out in my own accent.
Although like PP we sometimes say Tortwahh like Chamois for a daft laugh.

Tor tuss

Tor-tuss. I’ve got one and he’s lovely!