How do you pronounce turmeric?

[inshitsville]

TER-muh-rik?

CHOOM-rik?

Same way they'd get choo from Tuesday

But there is no 'r' in Tuesday.

'Tue' becoming 'choo' I can see; but how does 'tur' become 'choo' as well?

Maybe I'm missing something with the rhotic explanations, but I completely get how somebody with a Scottish or Irish accent might say (just to show for emphasis) 'turrrrrrmerrric' - but however does 'turrrrrr' become 'choo'?!

It's not though because there's no 'r' in Tuesday. It wold be like them saying Thoosday for Thursday.

Exactly - Tue and Due make choo

But Tur does not. Turn, Turkey,...??!

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

No I don't!

@LizzieAnt no, it's a longer vowel than a schwa in "fur" and "fir" (same one as "girl") Fernando however, would be a schwa, yes.

"were" and "turd" have the same long vowel as "fir" and "fur".
/ɜː/

Yes, the "Choo" is nothing to do with the R. It's about the /t/ + /j/ + /u:/

This stuff is why English pron is so hard compared to lots of regularly phonetic languages. Or, as a cute meme that we have on our staffroom wall says "shit like English pronunciation is why aliens take a look and fly right past".

Okay, thank you.
I'm a little confused though, because I thought people said all three were all homophones? Is fer just pronounced differently in the name Fernando or is it always pronounced like that?

Don't people who say choomeric drop the first r anyway?
I'm not sure why this happens, but the first r is also dropped in words like February.

DC1's dad is Scottish and takes the piss out of how us English folk pronounce "drawing" like it contains a second "r".

"draw-ring"

Oh no offence taken at all. Interesting thread.

You're spot on 😂

There's an 'r', no?

Apparently it's both. TUR and TOO.

Because of the double r it can make people feel their false teeth are falling out and they trip on it so have adapted the word to make it easier to use.

Personally I thought it was a silent R but clearly I’ve learned something new today!

Apparently it can be either Ter or Too.

Because it's a double R word, which can make you feel like your false teeth are about to fall out, people adapted over time to make it easier to speak.

I personally always thought it was a silent R, so I've learned something new today !

Now THAT's opening a new can of werms.

I'm amazed how much interest this thread has generated.

In my accent the first 'e' in were is like the e at the start of egg.

In turd the 'u' has the sound at the start of up

Both totally different sounds

That's really interesting. For me, 'were' is 'wur' as turd is... 'tur' so the 'ur' sound is the same. My sister consistently spells 'were' as 'where', so I wonder if she's trying to create that 'e as in egg' sound, which is why she spells it incorrectly?

Too-mur-ick

There's been an advert on the TV, for serum I think. They've been pronouncing it as 'ter' which made my doubt myself for a second. I wonder if it's that.

I genuinely don't know how it could be pronounced any other way?? The u and the e have the same sound for me.

"drawing" like it contains a second "r".

What?!

Doesn't everyone say Draw-ing? Like Mowing or showing? There's no second R?!

The u and the e have the same sound for me.

Really??

The new Turing scheme is definitely pronounced differently to say Tertiary?

Yes, it's the same for me, and fir has the same i as in the word it.

Thinking about it now though, I find there isn't a match to sound and spelling across all ir words in my Irish accent. (Maybe this is because they are pronounced the same in non-rhotic accents so room for variability?)

So, for example, I spell the word girl, but pronounce it more like gurl with the same vowel as fur. Similarly, I don't use the same vowel sound for fir and bird.

Tur-mer-ick
But have heard Choo-mer-ick quite a lot by telly chefs

Sorry, I meant to say
"Maybe this is because they are pronounced the same as ur and er in non-rhotic accents so room for variability?"