# How do you pronounce "lawyer"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196 "2011-03-18T21:34:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/41 "2011-03-19T18:43:57Z")
I love how the two of you ramble on while the rest of the world seems to know the correct way to pronounce the word. But don’t let logic or popular opinion get in your way, please – carry on! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/42 "2011-03-19T19:35:40Z")
Good thing you are magically babelicious my friend. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/43 "2011-03-19T20:45:07Z")
> [@Asimovian](#): > > I love how the two of you ramble on while the rest of the world seems to know the correct way to pronounce the word. But don’t let logic or popular opinion get in your way, please – carry on! > > 😃 Sounds like they might be lawyers 😃 ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/44 "2011-03-20T04:42:26Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > Sounds like they might be lawyers 😃 That was the only funny lawyer joke in this thread. LOY-ER (or LOY-YER) of course. Hardly anyone I know says “law-yer.” Raised in Northern California, currently live in Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/45 "2011-03-20T13:09:37Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I’m alarmed by the preponderence of the second option. It’s LAW, not LOY, duh. How in the hell do you people exist in modern society, seriously? It’s LOY-er. I say it that way and that makes it right. ---
**Author:** ![liberty3701](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3d9bf3/32.png) [@liberty3701](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liberty3701)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/46 "2011-03-20T14:44:03Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I’m alarmed by the preponderence of the second option. It’s LAW, not LOY, duh. How in the hell do you people exist in modern society, seriously? Well, the ‘oy’ sound (/ɔI/ in IPA) is the ‘aw’ sound (/ɔ/) plus a glide to the front part of the mouth (towards /I/ as in ‘bit’); this glide is similar to the ‘y’ sound (/j/ in IPA, like the first sound in ‘yes’). So, if you put ‘law’ and ‘yer’ together quickly, you can easily get an ‘oy’ sound. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/47 "2011-03-20T15:02:19Z")
Oi, vey. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/48 "2011-03-21T13:27:37Z")
LAW-yer. Central Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/49 "2011-03-21T20:49:28Z")
LOY-er. Grew up in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/50 "2011-03-21T23:04:12Z")
Southern pronunciation, but a little more low-brow than NinetyWt. I say law-yur. The “law” kind of flops out of your mouth and then yur. LAW-yur. And I probably take enough time to get it out of my mouth that you could say it three times. Usually the idea I get in my mind when the pronunciation threads come up is to take whatever your pronunciation is and imagine you are really tired and your mouth is full of honey and you can’t let it drip out when you talk. Oddly enough, I actually don’t sound like I have a speech impediment. Just really, really Southern. Imagine Callie from CSI: Miami on valium. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/51 "2011-03-22T01:49:59Z")
Loyer Grew up in the Northeast. Became a Loyer in the Southeast. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/52 "2011-03-22T14:17:39Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I sometimes think a really good linguist could probably figure out where I’m from within a two-mile radius based on how unusual some of my pronunciations are. 😃 That depends. Someone a while back posted a sample reading, and the unusual pronunciations were precisely the problem. It was like they mixed and matched different pronunciations from different places. In fact, I’m not sure it wasn’t you… Back to the OP, though. I was mistaken in my previous post. I’ve recently caught myself in a more candid conversation, and I say LAH-yer ([ˈlɑyər] for you IPA buffs, as opposed to [ˈlɔyər], which is how I would spell out LAW-yer from the OP.) ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/53 "2011-03-22T14:34:28Z")
LAW-yer. British. ---
**Author:** ![A.Gwilliam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@A.Gwilliam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.Gwilliam)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/54 "2011-03-22T16:04:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Back to the OP, though. I was mistaken in my previous post. I’ve recently caught myself in a more candid conversation, and I say LAH-yer ([ˈlɑyər] for you IPA buffs, as opposed to [ˈlɔyər], which is how I would spell out LAW-yer from the OP.) \ [ˈlɑ **j** ər] [ˈlɔ **j** ər] \ ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/55 "2011-03-23T03:01:06Z")
I pronounce it very close to “liar” but far enough away to leave suspicion… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196/56 "2011-03-23T13:42:22Z")
> [@A.Gwilliam](#): > > \ > [ˈlɑ **j** ər] > [ˈlɔ **j** ər] > \ :smack: I knew that. I can’t believe I made that mistake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-lawyer/575196.md?page=2)