Triple Homophones, Anybody?

[Occasional Sage]

I learned a new word today, and it made a new triple homophones for me. Can anybody add new ones for me?


there, their, and they're
to, too, and two
dawdle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dawdle), dottle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dottle), and doddle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doddle)


I'm sure there are more I don't know or am not thinking of, but for me trying to think of something drives it away, so: crowdsourcing!

[Mx.Silver]

I learned a new word today, and it made a new triple homonym for me. Can anybody add new ones for me?


dawdle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dawdle), dottle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dottle), and doddle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doddle)



I'm not sure where you live, but in my corner of the anglosphere those are not even homophones.
There, their and they're are homophones, but they aren't homonyms because they are all spelled differently.

[Occasional Sage]

Ooops. Autofinish to the "rescue"! :smallfurious:

[Hogwarts9876]

Flue, flu and flew, and also paw, pore and pour.

[golentan]

Raise, Raze, and Rays.

[Starwulf]

Flue, flu and flew, and also paw, pore and pour.

For the second set, at least in the states, that last set is NOT a set of homohones. Paw = Puh awww pore = puh ore and pour = puh ore

[Mx.Silver]

I, aye and eye.

Meet, meat and mete.

quadrouple homophone: awe, or, oar and ore.


For the second set, at least in the states, that last set is NOT a set of homohones. Paw = Puh awww pore = puh ore and pour = puh ore
'Poor' should work though.

[Togath]

quadrouple homophone: awe, or, oar and ore. .

How does "awe" fit in?

[Starwulf]

How does "awe" fit in?

I'm thinking it's for the same reason Hogwarts said paw pour and pore were triple homophones. Obviously a different country, my guess would be England, that thick accent of "Ey Govner" is likely what does it, though I could just as easily be way off base :) But yeah, in the States, awe and paw do not fit in with ore/or/oar or pore and pour.

[golentan]

I'm thinking it's for the same reason Hogwarts said paw pour and pore were triple homophones. Obviously a different country, my guess would be England, that thick accent of "Ey Govner" is likely what does it, though I could just as easily be way off base :) But yeah, in the States, awe and paw do not fit in with ore/or/oar or pore and pour.

Could be texas. They "warsh" things rather than "wash" them, and throw in a lot of other unnecessary rs.

[Starwulf]

Could be texas. They "warsh" things rather than "wash" them, and throw in a lot of other unnecessary rs.

Ya know, that's a very good point, my Aunt and Uncle that moved up here from the South ALWAYS did that, drove me nuts.

[hamishspence]

Fisher, fissure, and Fischer, as in the little limerick:

There was a young fisher called Fischer
Who went fishing for fish in a fissure
A fish with a grin pulled the fisherman in
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fischer.

[Eldariel]

There's a term for the "r":s; it's a feature of all the rhotic English accents. They're more common in Britain but some do indeed occur in North America too. I understand the rule is that a phoneme is pronounced with an [r] at the end if there exists another phoneme that has the [r] normally. Awe & oar is an example of such a minimum pair; they're both pronounced /ɔ/ with the only difference being the /r/ in /ɔr/; as such, in a rhotic accent, awe would also be pronounced /ɔr/.

[Chronos]

More triples:
Bite-- Mash with the teeth
Byte-- Eight bits of information
Bight-- A loop

Four-- Successor to three
For-- Because of
Fore-- Front

A quadruple example:
Rite-- A ceremony
Write-- Set pen to paper
Right-- Dexter
Wright-- A craftsman

And a sextuple:
Air-- Breathable gas
Heir-- Scion
Err-- To make a mistake
Ere-- Before
E'er-- Poetic contraction of "ever"
Are-- A unit of area equal to 100 square meters (more familiar in the compound form "hectare", which is 100 ares)

Some of the "air" ones might not work in all dialects.

[Aedilred]

There's a term for the "r":s; it's a feature of all the rhotic English accents. They're more common in Britain but some do indeed occur in North America too. I understand the rule is that a phoneme is pronounced with an [r] at the end if there exists another phoneme that has the [r] normally. Awe & oar is an example of such a minimum pair; they're both pronounced /ɔ/ with the only difference being the /r/ in /ɔr/; as such, in a rhotic accent, awe would also be pronounced /ɔr/.
Well, really a rhotic accent is just where such rs in words like "oar" are pronounced at all; a non-rhotic accent would pronounce both "awe" and "oar" /ɔ/. A rhotic one would differentiate /ɔ/ and /ɔr/. Adding an "r" where it never was in the first place would be an intrusive "r" which tends to be more common in non-rhotic accents and, while now standard in some instances, is strictly speaking a pronunciation error.

Most British (and Commonwealth) accents are non-rhotic, although there are notable exceptions (the West Country), and I think most accents in the US are actually rhotic.

So whether "-w" and "-r" words are homophones depends fairly heavily where you are.

[nedz]

Whore, Hoar and Haw

This one depends upon your accent:
Hair, Hare, Air, Heir, Err, Ere and E'er

[Jay R]

Meet, meat, meet.
Road, rowed, rode.
Mary, marry. merry.
Brays, braise, braze

[Jormengand]

dawdle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dawdle), dottle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dottle), and doddle (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/doddle)
quadrouple homophone: awe, or, oar and ore.
Fisher, fissure, and Fischer
This one depends upon your accent:
Hair, Hare, Air, Heir, Err, Ere and E'er
Mary, marry. merry.

You people have weird accents.

[erikun]

While not a triple, here is a fun homonym/homophone:

Read is pronounced like lead, but read is pronounced like lead.

[Serpentine]

More triples:
Bite-- Mash with the teeth
Byte-- Eight bits of information
Bight-- A loopOOOOoooh, that's why it's called the Great Australian Bight!


And a sextuple:
Air-- Breathable gas
Heir-- Scion
Err-- To make a mistake
Ere-- Before
E'er-- Poetic contraction of "ever"
Are-- A unit of area equal to 100 square meters (more familiar in the compound form "hectare", which is 100 ares)

Some of the "air" ones might not work in all dialects.Yeah, doesn't in mine. Air and heir match, and maybe ere. Err is way off, e'er has a catch in it, and I've never heard of are before but I guess I pronounce it in hectare like air.


Mary, marry. merry.What? :smallconfused: They're all different...
Mary = mair-ree, or mare-ee, with a long "a" sound.
Marry = mah-ree, with a hard "a" sound.
Merry = meh-ree, with no "a" sound at all.

My favourite is probably tip, tip, tip, tip, tip and tip. But they're homonyms, I think? And homophones, praps.

[FinnLassie]

My favourite is probably tip, tip, tip, tip, tip and tip. But they're homonyms, I think? And homophones, praps.

Hmm... I'm tempted to open the dictionary, but I'll try to come up with all the tips on my own. :smalltongue:

Tip, as in the top/end/point of something...
Tip, as in advice...
Tip, as in the money you give to a good server...
Tip, as in a landfill or a big mess...
Tip, as in to flip/turn something over...

Dang it, only five. :smallannoyed:

[Serpentine]

I *might* have been exaggerating slightly, but I think there might be at least one more.

[Asta Kask]

OOOOoooh, that's why it's called the Great Australian Bight!

Nah, it's a misspelling. It looks as if someone took a bite out of the coast there. :smalltongue:

[Serpentine]

Nah, it's a misspelling. It looks as if someone took a bite out of the coast there. :smalltongue:I think that's what most of us assume it means. And I know of at least one town name that came about because of a misspelling...

[Asta Kask]

Maybe there's just a lot of sharks around there...

[Eldan]

I always assumed it was related to the German "Bucht", a bay. Apparently, it isn't.

It made a lot of sense to me, too, comparing other cases. Flight/Flucht, sight/Sicht, light/licht, etc.

[Asta Kask]

I think you're correct, Eldan. Wikipedia has "bight" as meaning "bay".

[Chronos]

Quoth nedz:

Whore, Hoar and Haw
Even allowing for the R thing, "Haw" has a completely different vowel from the other two.

And I would think that if you have a dialect where "hair" and "hare" match "air" and "err" (they don't in mine; those Hs are pronounced), then in your dialect "or" and "ore" would also match "whore" and "hoar".

[Mx.Silver]

My favourite is probably tip, tip, tip, tip, tip and tip. But they're homonyms, I think? And homophones, praps.
Those are indeed homonyms.




Tip, as in the top/end/point of something...
Tip, as in advice...
Tip, as in the money you give to a good server...
Tip, as in a landfill or a big mess...
Tip, as in to flip/turn something over...
I believe it also has another usage in gardening/horticulture, although I'm not 100% certain about that.

[Blue Ghost]

Way, weigh, and whey.

[Eldan]

I think you're correct, Eldan. Wikipedia has "bight" as meaning "bay".

Huh. Wiktionary doesn't have that meaning, only "bend".

If "tip",counts, "set" should count too. That has a long, long list of possible meanings.

[Knaight]

Regarding accents: I have a Colorado accent. None of these actually work fully here:

Fisher, fissure, and Fischer, as in the little limerick:
Fissure is pronounced differently than the other two.

quadrouple homophone: awe, or, oar and ore.
Awe is pronounced differently than the other three.

More triples:
And a sextuple:
Air-- Breathable gas
Heir-- Scion
Err-- To make a mistake
Ere-- Before
E'er-- Poetic contraction of "ever"
Are-- A unit of area equal to 100 square meters (more familiar in the compound form "hectare", which is 100 ares)
Ere is pronounced differently here.

[TheCountAlucard]

Now I can't help but think of that episode of 30 Rock where they made a game-show out of guessing homophones...

[Eldariel]

Ere is pronounced differently here.

For me, "err" would be the one I'd pronounce differently (basically with one vowel sound instead of two and a slightly longer consonant) differently.

[Kindablue]

What? :smallconfused: They're all different...
Mary = mair-ree, or mare-ee, with a long "a" sound.
Marry = mah-ree, with a hard "a" sound.
Merry = meh-ree, with no "a" sound at all.

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/51af5dbfecad04ee48000008-1200/massachusetts-long-island-and-jersey-are-the-only-places-that-see-a-difference-between-merry-mary-and-marry.jpg (http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-in-america-2013-6?op=1)

[Eldariel]

*snip*

Pst. You're talking to an Australian :smalltongue:

[FinnLassie]

Myeah. Most UK accents pronounce all three differently as well. Americans are weird... :smallwink: :smalltongue:

[Kindablue]

Pst. You're talking to an Australian :smalltongue:

Do they live in Jersey?

[valadil]

Here are a couple more quads (assuming the t is flapped in your dialect):

Pedal, petal, pettle, peddle.
Medal, metal, mettle, and meddle.

[Serpentine]

Americans are weird... :smallwink: :smalltongue:That. So weird. I can't actually imagine hearing those words (when said clearly) and not being able to tell which one was said. Completely different. I mean, now I think about it I guess I can see how "Mary" and "merry" could be similar, except that "Mary" is longer and slower than "merry", which is short and fast.

Today an English friend of mine said "you can't..." and it sounded exactly like she said "you cu*t"...

[Eldariel]

Shouldn't the /a/ be much longer in the "can't" than in "[word redacted]"?

[AdmiralCheez]

Hey, wait a minute. I've lived in New Jersey for almost 16 years, and I've never heard anyone pronounce those three differently. That map doesn't make sense.

[Aedilred]

Shouldn't the /a/ be much longer in the "can't" than in "[word redacted]"?
It's highly accent-dependent. England has a lot of regional accents (and indeed dialects) with such a degree of diversity, it's difficult to pin down any universal standard for almost any word. Long vowels, short vowels, flat, broad, clipped, rhotic, non-rhotic, we've got them all somewhere or other. That's before even taking into account Welsh/Scottish/Irish accents. You could conceivably travel from Suffolk (where there are accents that sound Australian) to Dublin (where there are accents that sound almost American) without meeting a single person who spoke in the archetypal English RP/BBC accent. Some of them are almost unintelligible even to native Brits (looking at you, Glaswegian).

They're in retreat, thanks to the homogenisation of national media, but they're still out there.

[Eldariel]

It's highly accent-dependent. England has a lot of regional accents (and indeed dialects) with such a degree of diversity, it's difficult to pin down any universal standard for almost any word. Long vowels, short vowels, flat, broad, clipped, rhotic, non-rhotic, we've got them all somewhere or other. That's before even taking into account Welsh/Scottish/Irish accents. You could conceivably travel from Suffolk (where there are accents that sound Australian) to Dublin (where there are accents that sound almost American) without meeting a single person who spoke in the archetypal English RP/BBC accent. Some of them are almost unintelligible even to native Brits (looking at you, Glaswegian).

They're in retreat, thanks to the homogenisation of national media, but they're still out there.

I suppose that makes sense. I haven't studied British accents in any sort of depth, but I can certainly imagine that they would sound the same in one place or another.

[Serpentine]

Shouldn't the /a/ be much longer in the "can't" than in "[word redacted]"?If she had an Australian accent it would, but her English one makes "can't" shorter and harder, like in [badword]. Thus my double-take.

[nedz]

Vowels are very mutable and change over time, at one time English spelling was phonetically correct — I have met people who spoke dialects which missed the great shift, which was quite confusing.

Where I grew up people didn't use the word The because it was a homophone for Thee, which was used a lot.

[Kindablue]

Where I grew up people didn't use the word The because it was a homophone for Thee, which was used a lot.

You mean they used th' instead, right?

[nedz]

You mean they used th' instead, right?

Nope — that's a different dialect. Word was just omitted.

[Chronos]

Quadruple:
U -- Letter between T and V
You -- Second person
Ewe -- Female sheep
Yew -- Wood used for bows

[rlc]

There's a term for the "r":s; it's a feature of all the rhotic English accents. They're more common in Britain but some do indeed occur in North America too. I understand the rule is that a phoneme is pronounced with an [r] at the end if there exists another phoneme that has the [r] normally. Awe & oar is an example of such a minimum pair; they're both pronounced /ɔ/ with the only difference being the /r/ in /ɔr/; as such, in a rhotic accent, awe would also be pronounced /ɔr/.

Some American accents are actually closer to the English accent from the 1700s than our contemporary British friends. I'm from Rhode Island, which is in New England, but when I lived in Illinois, some people thought I had an English accent.

[Neli42]

I = pronoun (first person singular nominative)
i = symbol (imaginary unit, mathematics)
aye = adverb (yes)
eye = noun (sight organ)
ay = interjection (woe, regret)

[hamishspence]

Some American accents are actually closer to the English accent from the 1700s than our contemporary British friends.

I remember Bill Bryson bringing this up, in Made In America.