In my dialect, tour and pour don’t rhyme.
As A Brit I would only ever say pry-mer.
The first time I heard it as prim-mer was when I went to work in an American school with an American principal. She would always refer to the books as prim-mers.
I thought it was odd, based on the spelling of the word.
For the textbook, I’ve always known it and pronounce it as “primmer.” “Pry-mer” in all other situations.
I once heard George Will pronounce ‘dour’ to rhyme with ‘tour’, and that’s good enough for me. I defer to him on literacy issues.
When I hear Jodie Foster in Contact say “It’s a Primmer!” I feel the need to slap her.
In my English accent, ‘dour’ rhymes roughly with ‘shower’. Nothing look tour and pour (which for me would both rhyme with ‘door’).
Oh, and it’s ‘pry-mer’ for me too.
I always used “pry-mer” until a former boss asked me for a brief “prim-mer” on a subject that I deal with. It’s now stuck in my head, and “prim-mer” just slips out.
Canadian here. It’s always been “pry-mer.” The first I ever heard “prim-mer” was from my American ex-wife.
I originally heard it pronounced PRY-mer, and that seems to make logical sense. It’s also how you pronounce the name of the paint.I know that the “real” pronunciation is supposed to be “primmer”, but it sounds outrageously forced and unreasonable to me, so I always say PRYmer as part of my conscious efort to help sway the accepted pronunciation that way.
It’s always bothered me that the “recognized” pronunciation of “impious” is IMP-ee-us, and I always pronounce it im-PIE-us as part of a similar campaign. But nobody uses the damned word in the first place, so I dion’t think thsat campaign is making much headway.
I saw the movie twice without ever understanding what the hell she was saying. I just assumed it was a mathematical term I’d never heard.
At least it wasn’t a cookbook.
I’m in the PRYmer camp for reasons of linguistic consistency.
I, too was instructed at some point that the correct pronunciation is PRIMmer.
I objected on the grounds of common sense.
There’s only so much arrant pedantry up with which I will put.
I love these pronunciation threads for moments like these that show just how much variation there is in language. In my dialect, none of those three words rhymes with each other.
But Mary, merry, and marry all sound the same to me.
Same here. “Dour,” “tour,” and “pour,” all have different vowels in mine, too. Without getting into IPA, the first rhymes with “tower,”; “tour” is basically “too” with an “r” tacked on; “pour” is “pawr” or “pohr.”
Actually, I mistyped. Dour rhymes with tour and poor, not pour, in my dialect.
Text, “primmer”
Paint, “prymer”
I think. This kind of stuff is why I am afraid to talk.
In my dialect, “pour” and “poor” rhyme with “door.” Like pulykamell, “Tour” is “too” + R. “Dour” I avoid because my spelling pronunciation was “dower” and I’m pretty sure it’s to rhyme with “tour.”
I had the same pry-mer > primmer > pry-mer journey as a lot of others posted above: pronounced it as spelled, learned the “correct” pronunciation, then learned the as-spelled pronuciation was just as correct and so went back to it.
I also used to say “pry-mer” until I heard the alternate “correct” pronunciation. But using “primer” to refer to an elementary textbook has always seemed like an old-timey word to me; I would never use it in ordinary conversation.
Haaa! Word. Like Thudlow Boink said, I just avoid the word altogether.
I am not quite sure why the paint and the textbook should be pronounced differently. The fundamental usage of the word is the same in both cases - something that prepares the wall (or child) for further painting (or study)