Nicholas ([info]nwhyte) wrote,
2012-02-29 21:51:00
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paw/pour/poor poll

Poll #1822924
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 123

Which of the following applies to you:

View Answers
I pronounce 'paw', 'pour' and 'poor' the same
29 (23.6%)
I pronounce 'paw' and 'pour' the same, but 'poor' differently
12 (9.8%)
I pronounce 'paw' and 'poor' the same, but 'pour' differently
0 (0.0%)
I pronounce 'pour' and 'poor' the same, but 'paw' differently
43 (35.0%)
I pronounce 'paw', 'pour' and 'poor' differently from each other
38 (30.9%)
Something else which I will explain in comments
1 (0.8%)

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  • 20 comments

[info]minnesattva

February 29 2012, 20:59:58 UTC 2 months ago

I can't actually tell if I pronouce "pour" and "poor" differently now that I'm trying to pay attention to them! I'd like to think I do, but i fear I don't, so went with the answer that's more likely to be right-as-in-true rather than right-as-in-"correct."

[info]yiskah

February 29 2012, 21:05:40 UTC 2 months ago

Yes, me too! I keep muttering all three to myself. I'm fairly sure that in casual conversation I pronounce all three the same, though.

[info]matgb

February 29 2012, 22:42:47 UTC 2 months ago

Aye-paw is definitely different from the other two, but I sorta think pour gets a bit of a u added, but not much, and it'd be hard to notice.

then, my vowels are getting messed up moving from Debbun to Yorksher.

[info]bopeepsheep

February 29 2012, 21:16:21 UTC 2 months ago

One you left out: pore is a different sound again.

[info]nwhyte

February 29 2012, 21:20:16 UTC 2 months ago

Yes, I should have thought of that. How do you pronounce it?

[info]bopeepsheep

February 29 2012, 21:38:10 UTC 2 months ago Edited:  February 29 2012, 21:41:32 UTC

When my local accent is strong it becomes two syllables. (The Oxfordshire R is not actually an intrusive R in pore - POR-uh - but it is in path - PAR-uth.)

paw, pawr, PAW-ur, POR-uh. When I'm channelling my mum aka being a bit posher, poor changes from pawr to POO-uh.

Edit: I can't quite get pour indicated the way I'd like. I may have to go and look up actual phonetics.

[info]ellen_fremedon

February 29 2012, 21:17:29 UTC 2 months ago

For the people who pronounce 'poor' and 'pour' differently-- how you pronounce 'pore'?

[info]nwhyte

February 29 2012, 21:21:16 UTC 2 months ago

Same as pour.

[info]chickenfeet2003

February 29 2012, 22:12:26 UTC 2 months ago

I suspect the answer to all these sorts of questions depends on who I am with, the formality of the speech, how much I've had to drink and many other factors.

[info]chess

March 1 2012, 00:10:09 UTC 2 months ago

My brain pretends it registers a difference between them but I'm pretty sure it doesn't actually make it as far as the sound I produce.

[info]ellarien

March 1 2012, 01:15:34 UTC 2 months ago

Poor has a different vowel than the other two, for me, but if there's a difference between paw and pour at all it's in that elusive British final 'r' that isn't really there unless there's a following vowel. So "Paw a cup" and "Pour a cup" would be different, but the words in isolation aren't. Pore is likely to get a bit more of that ghostly r, but maybe that's because I spent several years in America.

[info]bohemiancoast

March 1 2012, 07:25:39 UTC 2 months ago

You're right. I ticked, having said it a few times, that I pronounced them all the same, but in fact in practice I wouldn't pronounce them anything like each other in context.

[info]bopeepsheep

March 1 2012, 07:34:39 UTC 2 months ago

Which "British" accent is this, then?

(A good many of us - far more than is usually supposed - are rhotic and have non-elusive Rs.)

[info]ellarien

March 1 2012, 17:52:18 UTC 2 months ago

South Yorkshire, modified by two generations of independent school and only slightly bent by thirteen years in Arizona -- not as arhotic as southern RP, but the r sound is still more in my mind than in my mouth unless I'm having trouble making myself understood to an American audience.

(Apologies re "British" -- I was thinking in expat mode there.)



[info]alexmc

March 1 2012, 09:03:23 UTC 2 months ago

Well, I wanted to say that I pronounce "paw" differently:

I am more likely to shorten the word "paw" than "pour" or "poor", but I chose the option "all the same".

[info]alexmc

March 1 2012, 09:04:38 UTC 2 months ago

You know.... I can hear a difference between "paws" and "pours".....weird

[info]elmyra

March 1 2012, 10:38:16 UTC 2 months ago

I'm now muttering to myself. poor paw pour poor paw pour... ;-)

[info]redfiona99

March 1 2012, 11:59:34 UTC 2 months ago

I was going to say all three differently, but I went with paw and pour the same because I couldn't hear the difference when I said it. And then I read [info]ellarien's reply and I think that's probably the closest to reality.

[info]papersky

March 1 2012, 12:19:07 UTC 2 months ago

I say paw and pour (and pore) very slightly differently from each other, but poor as two syllables. I used to have an English boyfriend who used to "correct" me on this Welsh pronunciation which made me stubborn about it such that I have stuck to it even while unconsciously switching to RP on all kinds of other words. (I now quite naturally pronounce "ears" and "years" differently, for instance.)

[info]liberaliser

March 3 2012, 19:27:29 UTC 2 months ago

Paw, poor, pour or poor, all four. Cor! More?
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