Just for fun - how do you pronounce this word?

[melbotoast]

Here's an article discussing the pronunciation. Vote first please!

https://www.pronounceitright.com/pronunciation/peridot-15243

Edited May 21, 2022 by melbotoast

[Drama Llama]

I picked an answer because I like to vote but you need an answer that says I would tie myself in knots to avoid saying the word ‘cuz I don’t have a clue.

[prairiewindmomma]

It depends on context and audience? French audience or a jeweler get one pronunciation, art community with re: to mixing paints or others get another…with geologist friends I might even pronounce it olivine. 😉

[Jean in Newcastle]

I have never had to pronounce it in almost 60 years of life.  I've read it but I sort of skip over pronouncing it in my head because I've never heard it pronounced either. 

[Guest]

Count me in with those who studiously avoids saying it because I don’t know. But my friend has a son whose birthstone is Peridot (August, maybe?) and when he was born she said, in comparison to her other children who have Emeralds, “His birthstone is a peridot…what is that even? It looks like a booger.” 😄 So that’s all I think of every time I see the word, including in this thread. 

[melbotoast]

So the reason I'm asking.... I heard it pronounced one way in a conversation and thought it might be the other way but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure. And after looking up the answer I'm still unsure 😄

[melbotoast]

Ok, I changed the poll. 

[Amethyst]

I answered the first question with a pronunciation, but truly, I'm not sure I've ever been in the situation where I needed to say it out loud.

[Katy]

A jeweler pronounced it Doe and it never occurred to me that it was controversial until reading this thread. 

[Laura Corin]

I don't remember seeing the word. I would say PEH-ri-dot.

[barnwife]

I don't know that I've ever heard it spoken. But I've certainly read it before. And, for reasons unknown to me, I decided it must be "pear ih doe" (although sometimes the second syllable is more of an "ah" sound). I think I just thought "pear ih dot" sounds dumb, while "pear ih doe" sounds fancy. Remember, I was young when this happened. 

So now, hearing "pear ih dot" would be like nails on a chalkboard to me, although I technically have no idea if either is actually correct! 

[Xahm]

I don't know this word, but I would guess the second pronunciation if I came across it.

[historically accurate]

34 minutes ago, Quill said:

Count me in with those who studiously avoids saying it because I don’t know. But my friend has a son whose birthstone is Peridot (August, maybe?) and when he was born she said, in comparison to her other children who have Emeralds, “His birthstone is a peridot…what is that even? It looks like a booger.” 😄 So that’s all I think of every time I see the word, including in this thread. 

Yep, August. It is an ugly birthstone, so I never wanted birthstone jewelry even when they were all the rage in middle school. I've never compared it to a booger, but yeah, that fits. 😄

[Spryte]

Most of my jeweler friends pronounce it pear-ih-dot (maybe it comes out as an ah, if they are going fast). I have a lot of handmade peridot jewelry, so weirdly have spent some time discussing it, and being excited when they had new designs. 

One jeweler friend says pear-ih-doe. It was notable.

I’ve never had any reason to pronounce it outside of those convos.

 

ETA: I have no special love of peridot, but the color of the more unrefined stones worked well with my work clothes, when I was doing art shows. The flowy, artsy dress type stuff. 🤣

 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Spryte

[Loowit]

I usually say pear-ah-dot, sometimes more like pear-ih-dot.  It is my mom's birthstone, so I have heard her say it a number of times and just picked it up from that.  My mom thinks her birthstone is ugly.  I have always thought it was pretty, especially in the right setting.

[SoCal_Bear]

the second way...but that is because I studied French in high school. 

[Laura Corin]

41 minutes ago, calbear said:

the second way...but that is because I studied French in high school. 

Appearances can be deceiving though. My husband insists on pronouncing 'turbot' as 'tur-bow'. Although it comes from Old French, the modern pronunciation  - 1000 years later - is with the t.

[Zoo Keeper]

 Pear-ah-doe

A family member worked in a jewelry store for many years, and that was how I heard it pronounced.

[Corraleno]

I say _doe, because I've only heard it pronounced by jewelers and that's how they said it. But I also don't say the first syllable exactly like "pear," it's more like the "per" in perish or periscope.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Corraleno

[Ellie]

3 hours ago, barnwife said:

I don't know that I've ever heard it spoken. But I've certainly read it before. And, for reasons unknown to me, I decided it must be "pear ih doe" (although sometimes the second syllable is more of an "ah" sound). I think I just thought "pear ih dot" sounds dumb, while "pear ih doe" sounds fancy. Remember, I was young when this happened. 

So now, hearing "pear ih dot" would be like nails on a chalkboard to me, although I technically have no idea if either is actually correct! 

I'm just having a hard time pronouncing the middle syllable so that it sounds one way or the other. o_0

[bibiche]

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Appearances can be deceiving though. My husband insists on pronouncing 'turbot' as 'tur-bow'. Although it comes from Old French, the modern pronunciation  - 1000 years later - is with the t.

Interesting. I have never heard the T pronounced in American English, so that might be it. Or maybe he learned the word in (modern) France. 😉 

[Melissa in Australia]

4 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

I don't remember seeing the word. I would say PEH-ri-dot.

Me to

 

[Laura Corin]

5 minutes ago, bibiche said:

Interesting. I have never heard the T pronounced in American English, so that might be it. Or maybe he learned the word in (modern) France. 😉 

 Merriam Webster has the T voiced.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbot

[bibiche]

1 minute ago, Laura Corin said:

 Merriam Webster has the T voiced.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbot

Oh, I believe you. I’ve just never heard it. 🙂

[Ellie]

4 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

 Merriam Webster has the T voiced.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbot

Ok, wait...that's a different word...

[Loowit]

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

I say _doe, because I've only heard it pronounced by jewelers and that's how they said it. But I also don't say the first syllable exactly like "pear," it's more like the "per" in perish or periscope.

The "per" in perish and periscope sound like pear (rhymes with pair, bear, stare) to me?  I am guessing it is a regional difference or I am misunderstanding.

[Ellie]

But here is "peridot," and it isn't voiced.

[Ellie]

1 minute ago, Loowit said:

The "per" in perish and periscope sound like pear (rhymes with pair, bear, stare) to me?  I am guessing it is a regional difference or I am misunderstanding.

Same. It may or may not be regional, as I don't think I've ever heard anyone pronounce it in every region I've lived in. 🙂

[Corraleno]

8 minutes ago, Loowit said:

The "per" in perish and periscope sound like pear (rhymes with pair, bear, stare) to me?  I am guessing it is a regional difference or I am misunderstanding.

I think it must be a regional thing, because to me there is a definite difference between pear and per. I wouldn't pronounce "per my previous email" like "pear my previous email," or "per se" like "pear se." And to me ferry/fairy and Derry/dairy have different pronunciations, although I know some people pronounce them the same. 

[Carrie12345]

22 minutes ago, Loowit said:

The "per" in perish and periscope sound like pear (rhymes with pair, bear, stare) to me?  I am guessing it is a regional difference or I am misunderstanding.

Short e so, yeah, I guess that’s regional. I was gonna say like egg, then I remembered how some people say ayigg, lol. 
 

Per-uh-doe, for me. 

[KidsHappen]

4 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Appearances can be deceiving though. My husband insists on pronouncing 'turbot' as 'tur-bow'. Although it comes from Old French, the modern pronunciation  - 1000 years later - is with the t.

I would pronounce it the same as your hubby as I thought that was the standard pronunciation. 

[historically accurate]

1 hour ago, Corraleno said:

I think it must be a regional thing, because to me there is a definite difference between pear and per. I wouldn't pronounce "per my previous email" like "pear my previous email," or "per se" like "pear se." And to me ferry/fairy and Derry/dairy have different pronunciations, although I know some people pronounce them the same. 

perish, periscope = pear, but your other two "per"s are more like purr.

[KidsHappen]

1 hour ago, Laura Corin said:

 Merriam Webster has the T voiced.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/turbot

This is a different word than I was thinking. This is a fish and I was thinking of a part of an engine which is actually spelled turbo. Not sure which you were referring to though.

[Corraleno]

2 minutes ago, historically accurate said:

perish, periscope = pear, but your other two "per"s are more like purr.

For me, the per in all of those words is somewhere between pear and purr. Like ferry is between fairy and furry but different from both. I can feel the difference in mouth shape between per/pear/purr, but I don't know the linguistic terms to describe it.  

[Elizabeth86]

Crazy you would ask this, but I just did look this up. One of my boys asked me what August’s birthstone was and we looked it up and I wasn’t sure how to say it.

[CTVKath]

I answered wrong and I can't change my answer!!!!!! My sister and I are August birthdays and we've been saying "PEAR-ah-doe" for over 50 years.

[maize]

To further confuse things, etymologies I have found that suggest a French origen show the word coming into English from Old French in the 13th or 14th century; while Modern French tends to drop pronunciation of many final consonants, Old French did not. In Old French, that final T would almost certainly have been pronounced. Meaning it would have properly been pronounced when adopted into English as well. There are many, many French derived words in English that retain final consonant sounds that French later lost.

Article on phonetic changes between Old French and Modern French:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_French

Edited May 21, 2022 by maize

[Ellie]

6 hours ago, Corraleno said:

I think it must be a regional thing, because to me there is a definite difference between pear and per. I wouldn't pronounce "per my previous email" like "pear my previous email," or "per se" like "pear se." And to me ferry/fairy and Derry/dairy have different pronunciations, although I know some people pronounce them the same. 

I pronounce "per" as you do, but ferry/fairy and Derry/dairy sound the same to me (each pair, you know).

Edited May 21, 2022 by Ellie

[Jean in Newcastle]

10 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Appearances can be deceiving though. My husband insists on pronouncing 'turbot' as 'tur-bow'. Although it comes from Old French, the modern pronunciation  - 1000 years later - is with the t.

The only place where I have seen turbot in recipes have been British cookbooks. I don’t think that I have seen that fish sold in American fish counters. 

[Ausmumof3]

I would pronounce it a couple of ways and then laugh and say… or however you’re meant to say it.

[Laura Corin]

6 hours ago, KidsHappen said:

This is a different word than I was thinking. This is a fish and I was thinking of a part of an engine which is actually spelled turbo. Not sure which you were referring to though.

The fish. I live eight miles from the North Sea and turbot is a sustainable catch. We have two separate fish vans that bring fresh fish off the boats for us to buy at our door.

[LMD]

Peh-ri-doe

[Corraleno]

8 hours ago, LMD said:

Peh-ri-doe

This is a better description of how I say it, too.

[Lady Florida.]

9 hours ago, LMD said:

Peh-ri-doe

That's how I say it too.

[Lady Florida.]

17 hours ago, Corraleno said:

I think it must be a regional thing, because to me there is a definite difference between pear and per. I wouldn't pronounce "per my previous email" like "pear my previous email," or "per se" like "pear se." And to me ferry/fairy and Derry/dairy have different pronunciations, although I know some people pronounce them the same. 

Yes. It has to be regional. I live where people come from all over the US - few were born or raised in Florida - and I haven't come across anyone who pronounces pear the same as per. I have however, heard people pronounce ferry/fairy and merry/Mary the same. (I don't btw).

[Terabith]

There is not an option for "I have never heard of this word before, so I have no clue how to pronounce it."

[Lady Florida.]

1 hour ago, Terabith said:

There is not an option for "I have never heard of this word before, so I have no clue how to pronounce it."

The only reason I heard of it is that it's my brother's and my husband's birthstone.

[melbotoast]

3 hours ago, Terabith said:

There is not an option for "I have never heard of this word before, so I have no clue how to pronounce it."

I fixed it for you 🙂

[Ceilingfan]

I have never heard anyone say it, and in my head I say it pear-ih-dote. Like antidote.