How do you pronounce turmeric?

[inshitsville]

TER-muh-rik?

CHOOM-rik?

Do those saying Choo - mer - Ik also say

Turn as Choon?

Turnip as Choonip?

Haldi here as well.

Chew mer Ic

As a couple of other people have said, the toomerick/choomerick pronunciation has come about because people have misread the word and haven't noticed the 'r'; they're reading 'tumeric', not 'turmeric', and so pronouncing it like 'tumour' and 'tuba'. Whereas in fact it is spelt and pronounced like 'turnip' and 'turn'.

No, they wouldn't. They'd do it with words like tune, Tuesday, etc. Words where there's a /t/ and a /u:/ but a semi vowel /j/ in the middle of the two.

Yes, I'd imagine that's how it developed.

OK but that's not what I asked - it was said that ir/er/ur aren't homophones in Scottish.

In a Scottish accent, how do fir / fur / fer sound different to each other? As stand alone words, not within longer words where the rhotic accent would affect pronunciation

Yes, I remember noticing the r in it. In the 80s, people were probably seeing it on menus and reading it quickly. It certainly wasn't a spice my mum bought so people were probably just copying what they'd heard someone else say.

Why would Tur be pronounced Ter?

Do you not pronounce 'turd' with the same middle sound as 'were'?

I think it's a bit of a red herring here as to how people pronounce the 'tur' part, according to their accent, as (as I understand it) the question was basically whether you pronounce the 'r' in any way or ignore it and reframe the the word as though there were no (first) 'r' there at all.

I never understand why this commonly happens with February too.

Ah, sorry.
I'm not Scottish so not sure about how fur/fir would be different as they'd seem to both have the same long vowel and the rhotic R. The vowel in Fernando is a short vowel though so that would be different (although it's a non English word to begin with which might muddy the waters a bit!) (both Spanish and Italian vowels would be slightly longer than an English short one, acoustically, and slightly shorter than an English long one!)

Joining the club, I now really want to know what Scottish pronunciation of er, ir and ur is if they aren’t homophones! We need the ability to attach audio files as well as pictures on this site…

I only recently realised that in most US accents Mary, merry and marry are pronounced identically.

Quite funny how this thread seems to have more discussion of ter/tur (surely fgs everyone knows some British people have rhotic accents and some don't?) but less about how the heck 'tur' can be pronounced 'choo'. (I grew up in Essex so know it happens but it's odd!)

Why would Tur be pronounced Ter?

It might be in some English accents?

Whatever your accent, does anybody (speaking English) ever call the things hanging next to your windows 'KEW-tuhns'?!

Or Chootans?

Double ditto on Haldi but then I call Cardamom - Elaiti and Coriander is Cotomili and Cumin is Jeera. I am English btw but my husband was from elsewhere and these names just stuck .. a bit like old friends :)

Or Chootans?

They just sound like Doctor Who baddies

It's Ter for me (South East). I have the same sound for fir, fur, and fer(ment) But my Dad (Scottish) has different sounds for each.

I'm now slightly more obsessed with the idea that turtle and tertle aren't homophones in some accents. I'd never noticed it before but I can hear it in my head now.

For the record, I say it with a 'tur' that rhymes with 'fur' and 'cur'. Non-rhotic but I would imagine most rhotics would rhyme it with fur and cur in their accents?

Term'rick

I'm Irish so also have a rhotic accent.
Fir/fur/fer all have different vowel sounds to me. From what a pp said I gather the difference comes about because I pronounce the r and many English accents don't.
So in the same way til, tul and tel have different vowel sounds, or fig, feg and fug do, fir, fer and fur have different vowel sounds in my accent.

And I'm guessing the vowel in fir, fur and fer is a schwa for non-rhotic accents?

Same way they'd get choo from Tuesday

But @HeadacheEarthquake

Tue makes Choo - I get that

Tur does not?!

But is the Choo sound in Tuesday not from having Tue rather than Tu?