I suppose these questions are frequently preceded by an argument between one regarded as a pedant and another who is one secretly. I'm the pedant. Are these words pronounced so similarly as to be only identifiable by their context? For instance 'a dentist works orally' or 'I am to give an oral presentation.' This can lead to ambiguity (if they are pronounced the same): 'I can only learn a language aurally/orally.'
Orally Aural. Oh Really?
September 18th, 2007 by Ben
16 Responses to “Orally Aural. Oh Really?”
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Teaching English to Preschoolers with iPhones
We (i.e. the creators of Pain in The English) developed a series of iPhone apps to teach preschool kids how to recognize letters and words. (My wife developed the characters and I did the coding.) Our own 4-year old daughter has been enjoying them. They are now available on Apple's App Store. You can search for "bitskis" on your iPhone, or visit the official website at bitskis.com.
If you have kids and own an iPhone, please check it out. It's $2.
It depends who you're talking to. In my experience, British English has ORALLY and AURALLY pronounced exactly the same. Elsewhere, I have heard the AU of AURALLY pronounced OW.
It may not be correct, but I pronounce them differently. I would pronounce aurally almost like "ARE-aly," though not as strong. Visually, the "au" seems softer than the "o" in orally. Could be that I'm just strange . . .
They are most often pronounced the same. (See earlier Harvard studies of regional US pronunciations, apparently no longer on the web where I used to find them.)
I have generally heard them pronounced identically and it has troubled me, though not nearly as much as the sound-alikes "diarrhetic" and "diuretic," which, given a certain context, could result in a horrible misunderstanding.
This is one instance that Australian English differs from English from England – as a Nurse these terms are fairly commonplace in my vocabulary, and I hear my English colleagues pronounce them identically. In Australian pronunciation, it is 'oh-rally' (orally) and 'owr-ally' (aurally). this is quite important when telling someone how to take a medication…. :)
How funny…here in California, I don't know that I've heard anyone who pronounced the two identically. I certainly differentiate between the two, but I do recognize the similarity and often find myself attempting to make up for it by overemphasizing the "awr" (or the "ôr" for our pedantic topic starter) in aural.
I've never heard them pronounced differently (to give the Canadian perspective.) I only wish people would pronounce them differently than my name!
Imagine my surprise when I checked the dictionary and found that they are usually pronounced the same. The only difference I found listed was that some pronounce oral as oh-ral (1st syllable rhymes with "owe", something which I almost never hear, by the way).
Like some others above, I, too, emphasize the aw- more in aural. I actually use a vowel sound half-way between aw- and ah- for aural. Mind you, I'm not saying this is correct. I wonder whether this is a regional thing, maybe an older pronunciation, or just my own affectation (one shared by at least a few).
I live in Oregon of the United States and I have never heard these two words pronounced the same. Aural is always spoken with an and ah- sound, where oral is pronounced with an oh-. But then, I do not hear these words spoken very often, so I may be going on this from a very small group of people.
Another Aussie perspective, and from one who works in the Health industry as well, is that the 'o' in orally is pronounced as in 'got' and that the 'au' in aurally is pronounced 'or'. To mirror my fellow Australian, justines' comment, this could indeed be potentially embarrassing when prescribing medicine intake!
I'm with Cascader, offering the Kiwi perspective. I feel the words should be pronounced differently. In NZ they are.
cascader, did you say the opposite of what you meant? I've always heard and said aural as ah- and oral as or-
I'm with Jason on this one. I pronounce them differently; ARE-aly and an "o" in orally.
Cascader is using the Australian pronunciation – I agree with his/her description of how we pronounce the words. The American pronunciation is quite different.
orly? yarly. no wai!!1
sorry. I couldn't resist.
You can always send off for the free booklet on how to get round homophones in the English language. This delightful little vignette describes practical ways of pronouncing words that sound the same so you never get confused between boy and buoy, aural and oral, and free and three.
The booklet is absolutely free. Send an SAE to:
Mr Kenneth Cymbalta Haynes
Cytanog, 17 Parva Springs,
Tintern Parva, Monmouthshire NP16 6TT, UK