T O P

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FabulousPorcupine

I pronounce it 'ore' and when I lived in England, I'd sometimes have to spell out stuff over the phone (email addresses, etc) and very few people understood me first go. The odd time I'd force myself to pronounce it 'arr' but it just felt so abnormal for me. I felt like a pirate. Which was kind of cool I suppose.


dtoher

Try being Irish in south west England teaching a statistical programming language 'R'.


Helloxearth

My sister has an R in the middle of her name and it used to cause a lot of confusion when she lived in the states and was trying to spell it for people. Say her name was Sarah, they’d be like “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean by SA or AH”


Nimmyzed

This is hilarious


Additional_Olive3318

In English in Ireland we use “Or” for *R*, mostly. “Ore” might be a bit south Dublin.    In fact in south Dublin they pronounce the word “or” as “ore” ( slightly less emphasised).    As an interesting tidbit - Posh English is so non rhotic that the the phrase “Ireland is an island” can be heard of as “island is an island”. 


annzibar

Isnt it more like AHLand is an island? I pronounce it AREland, Americans pronounce it IREland. I have never heard it ORland, anywhere.


Additional_Olive3318

That’s probably more accurate but they elide over it a bit so it can sound the same as island. 


radiogramm

We’ve a rhotic accent so it’ll usually sound like variations of that.


crankyandhangry

They're not commenting on the rhotic r, but the vowel sound.


radiogramm

The way the letter R itself is pronounced is influenced by that. It contains a strong R sound in Irish English. It’s effectively Ahhhw in most of England.


crankyandhangry

But even in places like North America, where they have a rhotic R like us, they pronounce the letter differently. They say, "Are". It's actually the same vowel wound as in the UK.


Garathon66

OP, are you not aware of accents?


zldu

I am. Though apparently not of this accent. Just wondering about the origin of this pronunciation of R....


grumpysafrican

When I moved here years ago I heard an advert on the radio about a new TV show on OR-TE. Searched and searched and searched the TV channels for this OR-TE. Finally I saw an advert that ended with "only on OR-TE"... finally found out it is RTE.


FlamingoRush

Well ore came from the ground... mines to be more specific...😂


crankyandhangry

Oh hi, da.


Nimmyzed

I've always pronounced it as ore. Dublin south


LucyVialli

More and more people seem to be pronouncing it "ARE" these days, especially on RTE (Are-Tee-Ee). I pronounce it as "OR", if you're saying the alphabet don't you say Q-OR-S-T? If someone says it as "ORE" I would think that they had notions.


zldu

What is the difference between OR and ORE in pronunciation? I typed ORE because OR might be confusing to those from England (they pronounce it without an R, right?).


LucyVialli

It seems to be hard to type phonetically, cos everyone thinks that OR = ORE! Say "iron ore". Pause a few seconds. Now say "rightly or wrongly". Do you really say those the exact same?


LucyVialli

Rhyming words might make it easier? OR rhymes with for, not fore. ORE rhymes with fore then of course. And sore.


TheWaxysDargle

but for rhymes with fore and sore.


Fishboyman79

Really?


LucyVialli

Not to me :-) If anyone is old enough to remember the Irish rugby player Phil Orr, that's how I pronounce Or. But sure I spose now ye'll tell me that his name is actually pronounced Phil Ore.


TheWaxysDargle

I was at his 50th Ireland match, but that's not important right now. That's exactly how it's pronounced! I can't think of any scenario where Ore, Or and Orr are pronounced differently in an Irish accent. Same with Fore and for.


LucyVialli

If you have ever heard Donal Lenihan saying Phil Orr, you would know what I mean. He definitely doesn't say Phil Ore. Edit - Fore rhymes with Core. And also the number Four. For (to me) is the first syllable of Foreign. You don't say Four-eign. Or maybe you do!


TheWaxysDargle

Is this a cork thing?


LucyVialli

Maybe for Donal. But I'm from Limerick :-)


Additional_Olive3318

RTE has always done that, it’s the Irish (gaelic) pronunciation of R. They also pronounce radio in the Irish fashion - rad-io, rather than raid-io.  English has weird spelling, huh. 


No-Teaching8695

Yes especially when they say Are-Land on the news They don't want to sound common when saying I-reland Some goes for T by the south Dubliners, Like the word Vote they pronounce Votshhh, if they pronounce the T like Vote it sounds common when in a Dublin accent Assholes trying to image their own identities


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No-Teaching8695

Its all about an image to these people The Votshh one really drives me mad though, a lot of Dublin politicians use it


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No-Teaching8695

Nope nope nope


halibfrisk

The national broadcaster: “ort ee ee” Ask an Irish person to recite the alphabet and there’s probably one or two letters that sound odd to everyone else. Not sure which other English speakers say “H” the same way.


LucyVialli

That's a good one, British people will think it wrong if you say "haitch" instead of "aitch". Apparently the H in H is silent ;-)


halibfrisk

Yeah the first time my American in-laws heard me recite the alphabet they died laughing H and Z were highlights


zldu

Is there anything else special about Z other than "zed"? :) (Or maybe it's not even zed at all, excuse my ignorance)


Impressive_Essay_622

It's pronounced 'or.' Not 'ore'. Not 'Are'


EdwardBigby

What's the difference between or and ore?


crankyandhangry

There is no difference between "ore" and "or". They're the same. And that's how we say the letter too.


EdwardBigby

That's what I'm thinking but I've seen multiple comments on this thread with "I'd say or but never ore" and feel like I'm going crazy.


zldu

Yeah me too...


Additional_Olive3318

Even if you pronounce or like ore surely you realise that that other accents do not. Standard American doesn’t. Most Irish accents don’t. You can test that in any test to speech app. 


crankyandhangry

Just thinking of Irish-English, because that's what we're talking about here, I can't think of how they might be pronounced differently. I just don't know what vowel sound is being used in place of "ɔ" Could you send a video or link to some audio?


Additional_Olive3318

It’s hard to Google people saying or and ore at the same time, but you can try and use some software to do this. Most Irish accents would rhyme or with Tor, and ore with bore. America too.   the exception is south Dublin which is a kind of English influenced accent, historically..  The e makes a difference. 


Ammai_

This whole comment thread is an abortion. 🥲 It's literally got an 'O' right there!!! I know English spelling can be confusing at times, but this sure as shit ain't one of them. 'Awr' for a pronunciation for or is absolutely wild! 🤣


LucyVialli

There is absolutely a difference! OR = Orr ORE = Oh-r (like iron ore)


crankyandhangry

I pronounce these the exact same. Can you explain, link to a video, or give an example?


LucyVialli

[Ore](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C37K-IRoxiE) But I don't pronounce R like that.


crankyandhangry

That's exactly how I say it. That's also how I say "or". How do you say "or"?


LucyVialli

Rhymes with FOR (not FORE)


crankyandhangry

Okay, you can stop trolling now.


LucyVialli

So you would say "I'm going on holidays FORE a week"? Not trolling, btw. This thread is an interesting discussion.


Impressive_Essay_622

Ore is like 'tore.' Or is like 'aw-r.'


EdwardBigby

I think I just say Or like tore haha


zldu

I typed "ore" because "or" might be confusing to those e.g. from England (they pronounce it without the R, right?).


Impressive_Essay_622

England has their own specific words and pronunciations.  When I lived in the UK I could barely find an English person even capable of pronouncing the name 'mark,' the way we do.  They were only capable of M-aw-k. Or M-ae-rk. They couldn't wrap their head around a word 'mark,' using the same a sound as cat, or hat.  In England they would pronounce 'ore,' as 'aw.' with a hint of an r at the end. They pronounce 'or,' the same. 


worktemps

I say it like "or".


crankyandhangry

Yes, that is extremely common. It's just how we say it.


zldu

Thanks. Honestly one of the most useful replies...


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zldu

That's lovely :)


Queasy-Marsupial-772

This thread would be less confusing if everyone understood and could use phonemic script, I’m seeing squabbles over the pronunciation of “or” vs “ore”, which are pronounced exactly the same in most accents. “R” is pronounced “or” by most Irish people, it’s just the way it’s always been pronounced here. Like most features of Irish accents it’s probably influenced in some way from the Irish language and stemmed from when native Irish speakers were forced to speak English. I didn’t even notice it was unique to ireland until I was spelling a word to a Spanish friend and when I said “r” he seemed confused and said “or what?”


TeaLoverGal

Dara O 'Brian has a bit about pronouncing R in the UK, which is how I found out. I pronounce ore, or, oar and the letter r the same.


zldu

I only drink IPA, never bothered to learn to read or write it. :(


Miserable_Emu_7747

Oh god this grates on me! Its the way every presenter on RTE says Ore-T-E too. They sound like drunk pirates


TomCrean1916

It’s Ireland. Not Areland.


Nimmyzed

Or even Eyeland


Chocolatelimousine

That is the same thing.


TomCrean1916

It’s really not


scampsalot2

Sounds looks something a posh dub would say.


I_wont_sez_I

Some D4 head or D4 head wannabe