Keeping socks in a draw

[CatCaretaker]

Where did draw as a misnomer for drawer come from? I never heard it until I joined Mumsnet (though I'm Irish so maybe it's not a thing here). Is it that a certain accent masks the 'er' in drawer? It drives me bonkers.

There's a trending thread right now, but the OP said draw instead of drawer, and all I want to do is reply correcting her (I won't obviously)! How has she reached this age (middle aged from context in the thread) with nobody having asked her why she is saying draw instead of drawer?

Why do women blame their hormones for all sorts of things?

Yes I say tr aw ma

Trawma in Scotland too

So you'd pronounce er (on its own) as www?

Fair point. I think this thread is exposing my ignorance more than anything else! Also I did not expect it to take off this much!

I think ‘er’ at the end of a word makes an uh sound in most English accents. The r isn’t pronounced.

No. But when I pronounce it after a w, it just continues or I sound like a pirate or a fool. Imagine if we could do sound recordings and the thread was just filled with sounds.

Waves at fellow Scots and Irish people who of course pronounce drawers in the proper fashion i.e. draw-ers (ducks)

I say drawer as draw-er. Whether or not my accent is rhotic doesn't change that.

It definitely doesn't sound like draw-arrr or drawww.

@Jaichangecentfoisdenom - yes, of course we can see the two extra letters. But that hardly means anything in English pronunciation, as there are so many words with silent letters. We might as well ask if people can't see the four extra letters in "queue", or the three silent letters in "knight", or numerous other examples of words with multiple silent letters such as "doubt," "island," and "receipt" to name just a few. But I do agree with you about the spelling - no excuse for getting that wrong!

A fellow tribeswoman!

Exactly. There’s not much difference between the ‘aw’ and the following ‘er’ sound in my accent, so they tend to merge so that it comes out as ‘draw’. I can’t physically move my mouth in a way that makes it distinct, unless I put on a comedic pirate accent as others have said. This is unlike words such as player, where I would pronounce the ‘er’ because the preceding part of the word sounds different.

Interestingly, when I say lawyer I do pronounce the ‘er’, but I modify the ‘law’ part so that it doesn’t sound the way it does if I just say ‘law’.

I'd pronounce aural as orrall and oral as oar-ahl IYSWIM

Whether an accent is rhotic or not very much affects the pronunciation of drawer though? Either the r is pronounced in that position or it isn’t, eg as in farmer.

With drawer, a non-rhotic uh sound after the word draw can merge in with the w of draw and is sometimes left out completely as a result.

@Sunnyout , it doesn't. I say drawer as draw-er. How I say er doesn't affect that I say it as draw-er.

If I sounded the R in er it is draw-er.
If I don't sound the R in er it is still draw-er.

That would be great!

I see what you mean I think.
You mean you say it with two syllables irrespective of the pronunciation of the second?

Likewise:

"alot", "per say" and "rediculous".

I've even seen published academics on Twitter/X writing "alot".

Same here but obviously accents vary.

Where I live some people prounce the a in peas or meat. It surprised me when I moved here but I could still understand what they were saying.

@Sunnyout , yes.

@thesoundofwildgeese , some errors like anew and alot might be typos.

How does that sound? Mee-at? Sorry just struggling to get mt head round the meat & peas with ‘a’ sounded.

Same!

To me, pronouncing the A in meat would be making the “ea” sound like it is in “great”?

Yes, in Derbyshire. I've been here since the late 80s and some aspects of the accent and dialect are dying out - either that or I've got so used to it I don't notice. I was a teacher and it was the way a lot of the children spoke. In the early days I was doing finger rhymes and said 'put your hands in the air' and they put their hands in their hair. The (pronounced thee) meant your to them and air meant (h)air.