How do you pronounce the word "water"?

RavenCorbie said:

wah-der (and I suspect a lot of you wah-ter folks -- if you're American -- probably actually say the "d" sound rather than the "t" sound, but I could be wrong).

Also:

o

vuh-dA

VOda

Click to expand...

I never thought about it but its "wah-der" for me. I also said "woorsh" until I trained myself to not say it. But a lot of people still say it here. Funny how accents are different.

wah-dur

The more I think about it, the less sure I am, but I think I pronounce it watt-er.  On a similar note, how do you pronounce creek?  People laugh at me because I pronounce it Crick.

Well, yeah, wah-der, most of the time :tongue2:. But I also pronounce the T sometimes. . .depends on the context, I think. But I live near Minnesota, where they don't say "Minnuhsoda" like most people---with a Minnesotan accent you would say "Minneh-soh-tah" . So with my slight Minnesotan accent, I do occasionally say the T.

MargeCat said:

I have a friend from Massachusetts who always laughs at my pronunciation! I only know one other person who pronounces it the way I do, and she's also from Pennsylvania (but from Gettysburg; I'm from West Chester). I say "war-ter". I've never been able to determine how I learned to pronounce it that way! Could it be a British pronunciation (Mom was British, so perhaps I learned it from her)? I say it like the word "war", not "waaahhh-ter".

I believe the Philadelphia pronunciation is different; I do have an otherwise Philly accent, except for the w-word!

How do you say water?

Click to expand...

I'm from the suburbs of Philly and I say "wooder" .

One time I was 3,000 miles away in California and asked for a glass of wooder at a restaurant. The waitress said "Where are you from, PA?"

Misty8723 said:

The more I think about it, the less sure I am, but I think I pronounce it watt-er.  On a similar note, how do you pronounce creek?  People laugh at me because I pronounce it Crick.

Click to expand...

I say it as it sounds; unless you are referring to a specific one that is always referred to as Such and Such Crick by generations of my family members. 

Yeah, I say creek.  My parents said "creek" at home, but as soon as we got into Colorado (lots of vacations there, since I have family in the Denver area), it turned into "crick."  It completely confused me the first time it happened:  I thought it was a new word.

I pronounce it " war ta" I should pronounce it " war ter" and yes that's proper English.

I say "wahd-er"

And I say "creek" just as it looks, but the rest of my family was born and raised in West Virginia, so they all say "crikk,"

I say "waa-ter."  There is a town near me called "Dividing Creek."  We can always tell a non-native because he pronounces it "creek" not "crick."

The river that runs nearby is the Maurice River, pronounced "Morris."  Again, we can tell the non-natives when they pronounce it like it looks - Maw-eece."

I have a cousin who pronounces "toilet" as "terlit."

Gotta love this country!

im now sitting talking out loud how I say this best way I can think I say it is War-ta obviously a British accent and then my local dialect from Geordie land its interesting to say the least!

-_aj_- said:

im now sitting talking out loud how I say this best way I can think I say it is War-ta obviously a British accent and then my local dialect from Geordie land its interesting to say the least!

Click to expand...

That's how I say it and I'm Australian. Maybe we are related!! Lol!!

I am from philly to and I say it like "wt-er" and I am in Indiana right now and I hate how they say it "wwwwwaaaaaatttttttttteeeeeeerrrrrrr

I'm from Nebraska and we say it "wahter". Of course we don't say that word much up here, first we are in a drought and don't have much, and second if Kansas hears us they'll want some and sue us for it!

I'm from Baltimore (East Coast US), where everyone says "wooder." My boyfriend, who is from Philadelphia, says it the same way. I learned to speak from my parents, who are from the South, so we say "wah-ter."

I recently took this test to see if it could guess where I'm from. Unfortunately, it only tracks US accents, but it's scarily accurate. It pegged me as being from Baltimore or one of two cities in the Carolinas, where my parents are from. Fascinating. This site won't let me publish an outside link, but here is the info in a couple pieces:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

Misty8723 said:

The more I think about it, the less sure I am, but I think I pronounce it watt-er.  On a similar note, how do you pronounce creek?  People laugh at me because I pronounce it Crick.

Click to expand...

I pronounce it "creeek". The first I heard "crick" was here in Canada and it cracked me up. Didn't know what they were talking about!

Tammat said:

I pronounce it " war ta" I should pronounce it " war ter" and yes that's proper English.

Click to expand...

Yup, me too. As a Kiwi living in Canada, I've really had to learn to pronounce my r's!

I did the test in the above post and it pegged me as from the New York area- Yonkers & Jersey City. :lol3:

MElastiGirl said:

 
I'm from Baltimore (East Coast US), where everyone says "wooder." My boyfriend, who is from Philadelphia, says it the same way. I learned to speak from my parents, who are from the South, so we say "wah-ter."

I recently took this test to see if it could guess where I'm from. Unfortunately, it only tracks US accents, but it's scarily accurate. It pegged me as being from Baltimore or one of two cities in the Carolinas, where my parents are from. Fascinating. This site won't let me publish an outside link, but here is the info in a couple pieces:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0

Click to expand...

This quiz was spot on - fantastic!  (I am from Cleveland and Cleveland was one of the 3 cities in the US that it chose from my speech pattern/pronunciations/dialect)

MargeCat said:

I say "war-ter". I've never been able to determine how I learned to pronounce it that way! Could it be a British pronunciation (Mom was British, so perhaps I learned it from her)?

Click to expand...

Being a Brit that's how l say it as well 

I was disappointed with the quiz!  My family moved to southern New Jersey when I was four but my parents, from the south, worked hard to make sure we did not pronounce certain words like "Philly chicks."  I saw a lot of those words on the quiz and thought for sure I'd sound like I came from Philly or somewhere south.

The quiz said I sounded like I was from Yonkers, NY!  I guess I'm a hybrid of some sort.

BTW - did you know that people from New York usually don't pronounce the "th" - "dez guys" and "doz guys" - is because the rich Irish heritage in the area?  The Irish language has no sound for "th" and use "d" or "t" instead.

One of my uncle's favorite sayings was "that guy is tick as a post."