How do you pronounce the letter R?

Cathaoirleach · 17-05-2011 01:39PM #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 01:40PM

It's pronounced tee arr oh ell ell.

3hn2givr7mx1sc · 17-05-2011 01:40PM

'or' and 'ishoo'.

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

brummytom · 17-05-2011 01:41PM

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

Pherekydes · 17-05-2011 01:41PM

Where's the option for "aw"?

Wound and wound the wascally wabbit wan...

Dangerous Man · 17-05-2011 01:42PM

Well, Landlubber, I prounce it yaarrrrrgh.

Daegerty · 17-05-2011 01:43PM

Oar, iShoe

bonerm · 17-05-2011 01:44PM

"Я"

up for anything · 17-05-2011 01:44PM

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

stephendevlin · 17-05-2011 01:48PM

R

SirenX · 17-05-2011 01:49PM

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 01:51PM

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 01:51PM

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

Noo · 17-05-2011 01:54PM

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

17-05-2011 01:54PM

or

Hookah · 17-05-2011 01:55PM

Rarr.

Rubberlegs · 17-05-2011 01:57PM

Are. Or is for posh folk:)

MadameCholet · 17-05-2011 02:03PM

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 02:06PM

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 02:10PM

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

marcbrophy · 17-05-2011 02:16PM

Some people pronounce 'or' as 'oar'

snooleen · 17-05-2011 02:23PM

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 02:42PM

are!

Dangerous Man · 17-05-2011 02:52PM

It's pronounced Or. That is it.

Capt'n Midnight · 17-05-2011 03:15PM

IIRC it's an erotic R

or was it an erattic R

something like that anyways

Pride Fighter · 17-05-2011 03:19PM

L

michelledoh · 17-05-2011 03:23PM

I say "or" and "ish-u"

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

bnt · 17-05-2011 03:37PM

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 03:46PM

Rawwwrrrrrr!!

pickarooney · 17-05-2011 03:49PM

[ɔɹ]

or, haitch, sometimes even ah

kraggy · 17-05-2011 04:02PM

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.

How do you pronounce the letter R?

How do you pronounce the letter R? 273 votes

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