Barleywine
And for the few people who can't seem to get past "Tarot for Dummies," there is "DUH-ro."
How Do You Pronounce 'Tarot' When Talking?
swimming in tarot
Kalliope, I still can't vote. I pronounce tarot (and sparrow, barrow, etc.) with a short A, as in bat, not a short E, as in bet, or tear (tear your pants), which is also an E sound. My option (which I always thought was standard English pronunciation (and so does my dictionary)) is not represented. If I went for TAR-oh, black, goopy tar is a long A, like the one in father, so still not the right vowel.
Barleywine
Is there a "pronunciation" link for Canadian English-speakers? I posted the American one, and it's clearly TARE-oh or TAIR-oh here (unless you're from the "Valley" or maybe Brooklyn).
kalliope
Actually, the second one (TAR-oh) would rhyme with STAR-oh. Tar as in "tar the roads, covered in tar). If you rhyme with narrow and sparrow, you're actually what's listed as TEAR-oh (tear the paper, rhymes with bear).
TB -- I think a lot of people are making this same error, contributing to the 21% of votes for TAR-oh (wish upon a STAR-oh)! Maybe a moderator can edit the poll for you? Consider adding some rhymes & explanations to help people out, since pronunciation is so hard to spell so everyone gets it:
--ta-ROH (ta-ROE)
--TAR-oh (rhymes with STAR-oh; "tar" as in black tar on the road)
--TUR-oh (rhymes with burrow; to burrow underground; TUR rhymes with burr on a bush)
--te-ROH (te-ROE, teh-ROH) (similar to ta-ROH)
--TAIR-oh (TARE-oh) (rhymes with narrow and sparrow and taro root; TAIR rhymes LAIR)
--te-ROTT (almost rhymes with Lady of Shalott, ROTT rhymes with lot)
--TAIR-it (rhymes with lair, or stair; almost rhymes with carrot)
--turah (TUR-ah? TR-ah?)
BTW, I wouldn't use ROW as the ROH/ROE long O sound because OW can be a different vowel sound sometimes: "Ow, I stubbed my foot" or "take a bow after your performance"
kalliope
So you don't say sparrow and barrow pretty much like spare tire or bare skin or dungeon lair? Because that's the sound Tarotbear meant by TEAR-oh. (Like the video earthair linked to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQTYVsWmK6U )
Also, I think what you're calling a "long a" as in "father" isn't really a long a, even though it sounds broad and is held a little longer. Long a (as in what you learn to call it in elementary school) sounds like when you say the letter A, rhyming with pay. Father is something else, but I don't know what it's technically called!
Or are you from the Philly or Boston areas? I know in certain parts of the Northeast US some of the short a and e sounds can get tricky. Here's a test: do you say these words all the same way, or differently?
--Mary, marry, merry
If you say them all the same, that's common in most of the US (I saw a graph of it once), especially the midwest. People who distinguish between all three sounds are usually from specific parts of the Northeast US. Not sure how it works out for other, non-US English speakers though.
ETA: I'm originally from the Midwest, but my husband is from Philadelphia and we live near Boston. It took me LOTS of practice to even be able to HEAR the difference between the way he said those three words! It was crazy to me! Sometimes for kicks I try to get my family back home to be able to tell them apart, too.
swimming in tarot
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/tarot
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/sparrow
Sparrow has a short A sound. That's why it has an A.
[ducks out before the Great Pronunciation War begins, and before the myriad inconsistencies of the English language are brought up ]
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/sparrow
Sparrow has a short A sound. That's why it has an A.
[ducks out before the Great Pronunciation War begins, and before the myriad inconsistencies of the English language are brought up ]gregory
Absolutely NOT. Spa-rrow - with the a like the a in cat.
Barleywine
So you don't say sparrow and barrow pretty much like spare tire or bare skin or dungeon lair? Because that's the sound Tarotbear meant by TEAR-oh. (Like the video earthair linked to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQTYVsWmK6U )
Also, I think what you're calling a "long a" as in "father" isn't really a long a, even though it sounds broad and is held a little longer. Long a (as in what you learn to call it in elementary school) sounds like when you say the letter A, rhyming with pay. Father is something else, but I don't know what it's technically called!
Or are you from the Philly or Boston areas? I know in certain parts of the Northeast US some of the short a and e sounds can get tricky. Here's a test: do you say these words all the same way, or differently?
--Mary, marry, merry
If you say them all the same, that's common in most of the US (I saw a graph of it once), especially the midwest. People who distinguish between all three sounds are usually from specific parts of the Northeast US. Not sure how it works out for other, non-US English speakers though.
ETA: I'm originally from the Midwest, but my husband is from Philadelphia and we live near Boston. It took me LOTS of practice to even be able to HEAR the difference between the way he said those three words! It was crazy to me! Sometimes for kicks I try to get my family back home to be able to tell them apart, too.
Yes, New England is strange. I once knew a guy from Maine who said "TAY-co" instead of "TAH-co" when talking about Mexican food.
kalliope
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/tarot
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/british/sparrow
Sparrow has a short A sound. That's why it has an A.
Well, there you go -- I'm saying it the American way (like the American speaker in those links), so that's why all those rhymes makes sense to me. I understand now that you mean the UK pronunciation.
(The Northeast US people say "marry" with a similar sound to the UK a in sparrow.)
So you say sparrow like the UK pronunciation in Swimming in tarot's second link? Do you say tarot like the UK speaker in the first link? Or differently?
