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?

Tor-tuss.

Your friend’s calling it a toytoice are just wrong!

Tortoize.

'Taw-tuss

Tortoyce.

or is it like the famous English “drawRing” that confused me so much as a child watching Blue Peter from Scotland?

Haha, you won’t believe it @HaveringWavering but I was going to post earlier that you must’ve been one of those nice middle class Scottish kids that watched Blue Peter, due to your rejection of po-yum! I bet you watched Swap Shop instead of Tiswas, too! (Apologies if you’re too young to know what I’m talking about!😃)

I know exactly what you’re talking about and you’re bang on about Tiswas/ Swap Shop, ha ha!

Like most people I learnt to say tortoise before I saw it written down lol. This means I say 'tor tuss' like my Mum did, I can clearly see from the spelling that it makes more sense to say 'tor toys' though.

Tor tuss. Same with Por puss (rather than for poys).

Pronunciation here

Tor-tuss.

To pronounce it as Tor-toise is a bit like pronouncing "hyperbole" as hyper-bole imho - ie wrong!

My friend Nigella tells me it's tor-to-WHAH-sey ;-)

Love that! 😀

Cockney DH: Tor-uss.
Me: Tortuss.
DD::tortoys

Tor TOYSS is awful!

Tortuss all the way!

Buh Nah Ner
Having said it again and again until it has lost all meaning, forgotten how I say it, and then tried to creep up on myself saying it to check, I have concluded that in my accent (Essex diluted by Oxbridge) the A does have three different sounds.

I’m presuming that “r” is meant to signify a long “o”? Because why would you make an “r” sound in the middle of the word?

Yes, because in non-rhotic English accents, 'or' usually sounds identical to 'aw' (and 'ar' sounds identical to 'ah'). So to a non-rhotic speaker, 'or' is a perfectly logical way to represent that sound.

'Drawring' isn't the same issue. I think that stems from it feeling odd to go from the vowel sound of 'aw' straight into another separate vowel 'i' with no consonant sound to break them up. So some people (incorrectly) insert an 'r' sound to ease transition. It's not something the majority of English speakers in England do though.

Buh Nah Ner. Having said it again and again until it has lost all meaning, forgotten how I say it, and then tried to creep up on myself saying it to check, I have concluded that in my accent (Essex diluted by Oxbridge) the A does have three different sounds.

Really - is the vowel sound in your 'buh' actually different from the one in the 'er' at the end?

This is so weird because I was also having a discussion about tortoise's yesterday and noticed everyone around me was saying tor-toyse, whereas I say tortus!!

Yes, because in non-rhotic English accents, 'or' usually sounds identical to 'aw' (and 'ar' sounds identical to 'ah'). So to a non-rhotic speaker, 'or' is a perfectly logical way to represent that sound.

@Fairislefandango I’m well aware of that. I was making a passive-aggressive dig at non-rhotic speakers who don’t consider that their audience may contain rhotic speakers. It’s very self-absorbed.

@Fairislefandango I’m well aware of that. I was making a passive-aggressive dig at non-rhotic speakers who don’t consider that their audience may contain rhotic speakers. It’s very self-absorbed.

Ok. Maybe worth considering that it would be pretty normal for anyone trying to write down a phonetic rendering of how they say things to... well... write it down how they say it (wherever they're from). And that not knowing about rhotic and non-rhotic accents is probably the norm. And certainly no more self-absorbed than the many incredulous comments by rhotic speakers on threads like these, saying how stupid and ridiculous it is of to insert an unnecessary 'r' in words.

Tbh it wouldn't remotely occur to me to make a passive-aggressive dig at someone who wrote a phonetic rendering of a word, favouring the rhotic pronunciation, without considering that some of their audience might be non-rhotic speakers. It's natural for people to be used to thinking in terms of how words sound to them!

another is toytoyse

I'm a tor-toyz.

Well, I personally am not, but that's how I say it!

And that not knowing about rhotic and non-rhotic accents is probably the norm.

Oh come ON @Fairislefandango ! Any Scot who lives in England will tell you how common it is for random people to think it is hilarious to do bad impressions of our accents with massively exaggerated rolled “r”s. I’ve been here 30 years and still get it about once a week.

Tor toyce. I'm probably saying it wrong 😅

Londoner. Tor-tuss for me.

I asked my husband. He has unhelpfully spent far too long pronouncing it every wrong way possible.

Toy-tuss has us giggling.

So thanks for the thread.