Tortoise

[lankeela]

How do you pronounce the word tortoise? Do you say tor toyce or tort uss?

Me mam (from Yorkshire!) always called them a tor toyce but changed it to tor tusses when talking about more than 1. (Don't ask me why me mam was talking about more than 1)

[mkt]

tor toyce

[mkt]

but thinking about it when referring to a porpoise i say por pus rather than por poyce so dunno why i say tor toyce

[whiskeysheri]

Tort uss

[lady_p_gold]

tort tuss ....... is a North South thing I think

[sithlord]

Tort uss both singular and plural.

[BriWrite]

Listen to your Mother.

[curiosity]

It wasn't a ginger Tor toyce was it? Or worse still Ginger Tor tusses? That's exactly how I pronounce them.

[bernardo]

Tortus

[raysparx]

I'm from London and say Tort tuss, don't know what a herd of them would be, imagine a herd of tort tusses stampeding, how majestic!!!

[Grunty]

I don't have the full Oxford English Dictionary, but my middle-ranking version agrees with bernardo. I think the other pronunciation started when people began trying to pronounce words as they were spelt.

[sixpence]

Here in South West UK we say" tortoize" or "tortoizes"

[lankeela]

So, north and southwest tortoyce, the rest of us tortuss.

Thanks for your answers - I know I need to get a life!.

[heathfield]

You could always be really high-falutin' and pronounce it 'tor-twahz' !! :-)

[sophie_1003]

I'm from the Midlands, Warwickshire to be precise, and I say tortoyce and tortoyces!

[Narolines]

I'm a Midlander too, and grew up pronouncing it "tortoyse", but I have to confess that I now say "tortus". I still have my Brummie accent, but I'm afraid it's had some of the edges knocked off it (funny thing, this here education!). I still use a short "a", though - it's "glass", not "glarce".......

[Narolines]

Before anyone else says it, I know there isn't a short a in tortoise!

[baileys]

my (tortoyce)had a number 43 painted on his shell lol

[Tortustastic]

My Uncle who used to live in Leeds always used to say "The tortoise is getting curious!" before running from the room clutching his posterior.

Can anyone from the midlands or further north shed any light on this curious expression as i have spent most of my 37 years wondering what Old Uncle Bert was on about!

[lankeela]

Good to hear from you - as I will probably be the only one to get your message (after all this time) I 'd better give you an answer! I think a similar phrase would be 'touching cloth' -
i.e. the head of the tortoise is poking out to see what is going on (followed by a very quick visit to the lavvy!).

Funnily enough I had an Uncle Bert whose humour was somewhat lavatorial.