How do you pronouce this word?

[piratesmate]

In generic conversation, I pronounce it wooder. For more formal speech (i.e. I'm conscious of what I'm saying, such as at a job interview) I try to remember to pronounce it wah-ter.

For us, it was a crick if it was small & a creek if it was fairly wide - like the width of our road.

Deb

 

[StampMom]

Wahter. (with a silent "h.") And creek, not crick.

Thanks to FOJMO for posting the link to that dialect survey. It was pretty cool. I seem to be pretty "generic." My response was in the "majority" for almost all of the answers.

 

[Serena]

water

You all are

 

[RoutemanDan]

Waw-dah

 

[cinmell]

wah-ter (with a silent 'h')

Me too!

 

[katerkat]

Wow, so is crick a PA thing? My DH does that too! One state over and we think it's a creek.

 

[Boots]

Here in East Tennessee it is wahter!

 

[Steve H.]

Originally posted by katerkat
Wow, so is crick a PA thing? My DH does that too! One state over and we think it's a creek.

To the best of my knowledge -- yep. Pretty much the only people I've ever heard use the word "crick" was from PA (including all my relatives )

 

[d.kurz]

I grew up in Philly where there is wuder in the crick.

And I took the dialect survey too! Thanks...it was interesting.

 

[Robin]

wahter

 

[dclwdwlover]

Also (originally) from PA I pronounce it closer to: waw (like flaw) - der

 

[Kitty 34]

I say wall-ter.

 

[helenabear]

wah-der (soft T)

 

[Gary M]

I grew-up in a small town in Indiana and we said crick. We also say wah-ter.

 

[yensid1071]

H2O

 

[Robinrs]

Wawdah... fuhGETaboutit!

 

[TeresaNJ]

This thread is so funny. I always tease DH about how he pronounces water. I grew up in South Philly and say wader with the "wa" pronounced like "caw" (the sound a bird makes) and then "der". DH grew up in South Jersey and says wahter with the wah prounced like "aah". Also growing up I use to pronounce headache as headik, until I got made fun of so many times I conscienciously changed it.

 

[Judy from Boise]

I drink wah-ter, but I wah-der (soft T)
the plants !

 

[Jeff in BigD]

"wahter"

Oh & a "crick" is something you get in your neck when you sleep akwardly, not a body of wahter.