Pronunciation of "lorry", "worry" and "sorry"

Question

I have always pronounced lorry as "lur-ee" (as if to rhyme with worry), for as long as I can remember. Everyone else I know pronounces it as "lor-ee" (as if to rhyme with sorry).

Which one is correct, and why would the pronunciation of the vowel differ between sorry and worry when their spellings differ only in a consonant?

Since "sorry" is pronounced three different ways in the U.S., in the U.K., and in Canada. I've added the "british-english" tag. — Peter Shor, Oct 26 '12 at 10:47
Different UK regions pronounce things differently too. This could well be a Manchester thing (for example; I've never lived there). — Andrew Leach, Oct 26 '12 at 12:15
@AndrewLeach - I am, in fact, from Manchester, so you could be very much correct — rickyduck, Oct 26 '12 at 12:22
@rickyduck: As a Southerner, I hear the Manchester lorry/sorry as quite close to both marry/parry *and* worry/hurry. The fact that you've got away with your [incorrect] pronunciation for so long suggests even your fellow Mancunians don't perceive/enunciate those differences as strongly as some other speakers. — FumbleFingers, Oct 26 '12 at 12:47
What way are you weirdos pronouncing the word worry? I'd rhyme all three of lory, worry, and sorry. — TRiG, Mar 07 '13 at 19:36
@TRiG Worry certainly does not rhyme with lorry and sorry for me—it rhymes with furry. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Nov 11 '14 at 10:56
The "o" in "lorry" is pronounced the same as that in "boring". The three words you present have three different "o" sounds — Stephen R, Sep 25 '19 at 22:30

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 08 '21 at 20:44

There is a case that "lurry" is the original pronunciation.

The Online Etymological Dictionary gives this origin: "a truck; a long, flat wagon," 1838, British railroad word, probably from verb lurry "to pull, tug"(1570s), of uncertain origin. Meaning "large motor vehicle for carrying goods" is first attested 1911."

According to Wikipedia, meanwhile, before the railway "lorry" is attested in 1838 there was a horse-drawn "lorry", a low flat trailer for transporting other vehicles. Both of these were also referred to as "lurries" in the early period and this pronunciation seems to have been preserved in English dialect.

"Lurry" is certainly used here in Stockport by older and more conservative locals, but I first heard "lurry" from my grandmother (b. 1907 Cockfield, County Durham) referring to the horse drawn vehicle used to take her on a Sunday school picnic as a girl. She distinguished between that and the motorised "lorry".

I must point out though that the "u" of "lurry" as pronounced in the Teedale dialect of that generation is not the same as in Greater Manchester now; it is not as rounded as Yorks-Lancs /ʊ/ but not as open as the Southern English /ʌ/ I'd guess, but I am not a phonetician. I do know, however, that at the time the horse-drawn lorry was being transformed into the steam drawn lorry the English "u" was in a state of flux. My guess is that the spelling of "lorry" first recorded as a railway term in 1838 was originally an approximation to a dialectal pronunciation. The pronunciation "as spelled" has since become the norm.

Brilliant and articulate answer. Thank you for this! And only a score of 21! — rickyduck, Dec 05 '14 at 00:42

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 07 '13 at 17:52

7

I don't do "correct", but I've never heard anybody pronounce "lorry" to rhyme with "worry".

I believe that the difference is because of the lip-rounding of the /w/. Many words starting with "w", "wh", "sw", "qu" or "squ" have different vowel sounds from similar words with a different consonant.

Eg

watch, what vs patch, thatch, pat, that
war, warm, swarm vs far, farm
worth, worm vs forth, form

(There are exceptions to this rule).

edited Mar 07 '13 at 17:52

FumbleFingers

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answered Oct 26 '12 at 10:53

Colin Fine

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Adequate answer to my question. Sort of like wan should sound like man, but instead makes a won sound (wanted)... except in other cases such as a widely used swearword with the same first three letters (can't think of any other examples).
My argument for using "lurry" has always been worry is the same spelling yet different sound... I guess this eliminates that defense.
– rickyduck Oct 26 '12 at 12:25
I'm not sure "lip-rounding of the /w/" makes much difference. Most people wouldn't confuse hot and hut, which seem to me to be the same vowels as lorry/hurry. – FumbleFingers Oct 26 '12 at 12:49
@FumbleFingers For me, hot, hut, lorry, hurry have four different vowels. – tchrist Oct 26 '12 at 14:14
@tchrist: That's probably the American in you, being affected by the "r" that many of us Brits barely enunciate. – FumbleFingers Oct 26 '12 at 14:37
@FumbleFingers Hurry is like her with an ee on the end. Lorry is like lore with an ee on the end. Nothing at all like the others. – tchrist Oct 26 '12 at 14:49
@Jwpat7: that was supposed to read "I don't do 'correct'". Oops. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '13 at 17:20
@FumbleFingers: in my UK English, "hurry" has a different vowel from "her". And my point about lip-rounding is not about being able to distinguish sounds, but a hypothesis about why the sounds have (more or less systematically) changed. – Colin Fine Mar 07 '13 at 17:21
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@rickyduck: a following velar often seems to suppress this change: consider "quack", "whack", "wag" as well as your example, – Colin Fine Mar 07 '13 at 17:22
@Colin: My apologies for not having paid sufficient attention first time around. Actually, even though I'm not really qualified to judge, your hypothesis sounds pretty convincing to me. So here's my long-overdue upvote! (plus I took the liberty of editing to make jwpat's comment obsolete! :) – FumbleFingers Mar 07 '13 at 17:55

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 06 '13 at 14:37

3

I grew up in NW UK saying lurry (for lorry) but my more 'northern' boyfriend and his family insisted it was lorry so I changed my pronunciation.

answered Mar 06 '13 at 14:37

Ruth

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Are you saying you rhymed lorry with worry and hurry instead of with sorry and Tory? – tchrist Mar 06 '13 at 14:45
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yes, lorry-worry-hurry as a child, now worry-hurry rhyme together as do lorry-sorry but Tory is different again with an 'ore' rather than 'o' or a 'u' sound. I can't think of a rhyme for Tory. . . – Ruth Mar 06 '13 at 15:09
How about Story? – Carl Smith Mar 06 '13 at 15:26
@CarlSmith still doesn't rhyme with lorry – rickyduck Mar 06 '13 at 15:38
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@rickyduck, I doubt that CarlSmith rhymes with anything. – James Waldby - jwpat7 Mar 07 '13 at 17:36
@jwpat7 Cardiff? – rickyduck Mar 08 '13 at 15:46
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@jwpat7 Unless you start getting a bit blasphemous and describe the aging Emperor Palpatine as a gnarled sith. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 11 '14 at 11:01

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 25 '19 at 21:58

I'm from Manchester and have always pronounced it Lurry as have my family and a number of my local friends. It’s always been the norm to me! However the younger generation and now even my daughter have started pronouncing it lorry (which always sounds scouse to me) Both are probably right depending where you come from and how old you are. As a middle aged Manc I will stick with Lurry

Octopus · Answer 5 · 2013-03-08T06:16:57.147

Pronunciations practically always differ regionally. I don't say lor-ee and sor-ee. I say lah-ree and sah-ree with a really low in the throat o like the doctor makes you say when he says, "go awh". But it still rhymes with sorry and not worry for me.

Why do they not rhyme with worry? Well, English has lots of word pairs with identical vowels and different pronunciations. Like bead/head, have/save, blow/wow, watch/hatch to name only a few.

Etymology or word origins can be a big influence. Sorry evolved from Old English sarig and worry evolved out of wyrgan, so they didn't always have the same vowels.

score -3 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 09 '21 at 09:43

-3

Rhymezone

They should rhyme due to the spelling, not because the sound that the words make differs slightly. They, almost rhyme

edited Jan 09 '21 at 09:43

fev

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answered Nov 11 '14 at 10:47

libby

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Nothing in the English language “should r[h]yme due to the spelling”. Spelling does not dictate how anything is pronounced in English, and rhymes are completely orthogonal to spellings. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Nov 11 '14 at 10:59

Pronunciation of "lorry", "worry" and "sorry"

6 Answers6

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