How do you pronounce the letter R?

Cathaoirleach · 17-05-2011 1:39pm #1

Do you pronounce the letter R like "or" or "are"?

eg. RTÉ: is it "or tee ee" or "are tee ee"?

I say "or".

A very important issue, and certainly a candidate for Thread Of The Year.

ps. How do you pronounce "issue"? Is it like "ish-oo" or "iss-yew"? I ask because a couple of years ago, RTÉ reporters started saying "iss-yew". Why?

chin_grin · 17-05-2011 1:40pm

It's pronounced tee arr oh ell ell.

3hn2givr7mx1sc · 17-05-2011 1:40pm

'or' and 'ishoo'.

It pisses me off when people call Ireland 'Areland'.

brummytom · 17-05-2011 1:41pm

Are and ish-oo. But I'm from Birmingham so my pronunciation of everything's retarded

Pherekydes · 17-05-2011 1:41pm

Where's the option for "aw"?

Wound and wound the wascally wabbit wan...

Dangerous Man · 17-05-2011 1:42pm

Well, Landlubber, I prounce it yaarrrrrgh.

Daegerty · 17-05-2011 1:43pm

Oar, iShoe

bonerm · 17-05-2011 1:44pm

"Я"

up for anything · 17-05-2011 1:44pm

OrTE anseo agaibh! Makes me cringe. Are all the way.

stephendevlin · 17-05-2011 1:48pm

SirenX · 17-05-2011 1:49pm

I pronounce it 'are' and 'ishoo'
my OH pronounces R like 'or' but then again he pronounces a lot of thing funny...

Oh god I hope he doesn't read this, I'll be in some trouble !

Cat Melodeon · 17-05-2011 1:51pm

I voted 'atori jaguor' because I say neither 'or' not 'are', it's more of an aahrrr - so caahrr and baahrr, or aahrr tee ee, think thick culchie accent. Caused me no end of trouble when I used to teach English abroad - RP-English speaking colleagues would lose their mind when I did the pronunciation classes and all the Krauts ended up with flat Irish accents saying eeer and beeer instead of ee-ah (ear) and bee-ah (beer) or poooer instead of poo-ah (poor).

I don't mind 'r' so much, but I hate it when people can't pronounce 'o' properly - eau neau, moi i-pheaun died dahling. pukes.

Iwasfrozen · 17-05-2011 1:51pm

I pronounce it "are" and "iss-yew". You damm Dublin people with your "or-tee-eee"

Noo · 17-05-2011 1:54pm

"Or" all the way, "are" when i'm in pirate-mode.

17-05-2011 1:54pm

Hookah · 17-05-2011 1:55pm

Rarr.

Rubberlegs · 17-05-2011 1:57pm

Are. Or is for posh folk:)

MadameCholet · 17-05-2011 2:03pm

Cathaoirleach wrote: »

Do you pronounce the letter R like "or" or "are"?

eg. RTÉ: is it "or tee ee" or "are tee ee"?

I say "or".

A very important issue, and certainly a candidate for Thread Of The Year.

ps. How do you pronounce "issue"? Is it like "ish-oo" or "iss-yew"? I ask because a couple of years ago, RTÉ reporters started saying "iss-yew". Why?

I'd say r like are. My children say ore though. I correct them.

Issue is issyoo. Rhymes with tissyoo.

Larianne · 17-05-2011 2:06pm

Anne Doyle pronounces sexual is a weird way too.

I say 'or' when saying the letter R but say are-tee-ee.

17-05-2011 2:10pm

I neva use that letta......................init

marcbrophy · 17-05-2011 2:16pm

Some people pronounce 'or' as 'oar'

snooleen · 17-05-2011 2:23pm

Pronouncing it 'or' doesn't mean you have a posh, over-exaggerated accent. That's 'ooooaaaarrrr'.

And I say 'or' and 'ishoo'.

Yeah she says 'secs-ewal'.

Nothing annoys me more than hearing Americans pronounce 'route' as 'rowt' instead of 'root' :mad:

Joonaspp · 17-05-2011 2:42pm

are!

Dangerous Man · 17-05-2011 2:52pm

It's pronounced Or. That is it.

Capt'n Midnight · 17-05-2011 3:15pm

IIRC it's an erotic R

or was it an erattic R

something like that anyways

Pride Fighter · 17-05-2011 3:19pm

michelledoh · 17-05-2011 3:23pm

I say "or" and "ish-u"

Why do RTE news readers say "iss-yew" it sounds liks a sneeze!

bnt · 17-05-2011 3:37pm

73Cat wrote: »

Are. Or is for posh folk:)

Or is for Irish folk. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world AFAIK. It confused the heck out of me when I moved here, and it still sounds uncultured to me.

OutlawPete · 17-05-2011 3:46pm

Rawwwrrrrrr!!

pickarooney · 17-05-2011 3:49pm

[ɔɹ]

or, haitch, sometimes even ah

kraggy · 17-05-2011 4:02pm

Presenters and newsreaders on RTE pronounce the R as "Are" and not "or" because in Gaeilge, the letter R is pronounced "Are".

And RTE is Raidio Teilifis Eireann, which of course is Gaeilge so, they are correct when they pronounce it like that.

pickarooney · 17-05-2011 4:15pm

kraggy wrote: »

Presenters and newsreaders on RTE pronounce the R as "Are" and not "or" because in Gaeilge, the letter R is pronounced "Are".

And RTE is Raidio Teilifis Eireann, which of course is Gaeilge so, they are correct when they pronounce it like that.

I never knew Irish had its own names for the letters of the alphabet. I always found it a bit weird actually. What are all the other letters called?

Ickle Magoo · 17-05-2011 4:16pm

Arrrrrrrr

With that fine scottish roll

Ghost Buster · 17-05-2011 4:30pm

I pronounce it correctly

starlit · 17-05-2011 5:02pm

Usually say the letter 'R' properly, 'or' but my mouth might slip out 'are' the odd time.

orourkeda · 17-05-2011 5:04pm

r

What is it good for?

Ghost Buster · 17-05-2011 5:13pm

Isnt pronouncing it 'Oar' just a little bit Ross O'Carrol Kelly?

Fizgig Bandicoot · 17-05-2011 7:36pm

'or', ''ishyew'. I thought they pronounced it 'are-tee-ee' on the telly, and that pronunciation of it really annoys me.

Rubberlegs · 17-05-2011 7:43pm

bnt wrote: »

Or is for Irish folk. It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world AFAIK. It confused the heck out of me when I moved here, and it still sounds uncultured to me.

OK, its for posh IRISH folk:p

Cathaoirleach · 17-05-2011 7:44pm

kraggy wrote: »

Presenters and newsreaders on RTE pronounce the R as "Are" and not "or" because in Gaeilge, the letter R is pronounced "Are".

And 'issue'?

ISH-oo is how it's pronounced in Ireland, but some gobshíte in RTÉ decided to send a memo to everyone telling them they should pronounce it ISS-yew.

Tissue as well. It's TISH-oo in Ireland. Why are RTÉ now saying TISS-yew? :rolleyes:

And the letter 'H'.

In Ireland, we say HAYCH, but now RTÉ are saying "AYCH". Why??

Basically, someone in RTÉ has sent a memo telling everyone to follow BBC's pronunciation guide and to ditch Irish pronunciations.

And that French arsehole Sarkozy. In English, it is pronounced "Sar-CO-see", but now RTÉ are trying to pronounce it in French: "Zar-co-ZEEEEE".

Basically, I hate RTÉ.