# pronunciation: aural vs oral



## audiolaik

Hi,

Welcome back after a series of life's ups and downs, including drinking bouts, etc.

Here's another pronunciation question. How do you tend to pronounce the word "aural"? 

a) ɔːrəl  /ɔː/ as in horse
b) aʊrəl /aʊ/ as in owl

I'm curious, because version "a" sounds exactly like the word "oral", which might lead to some confusion.  

Thank you!

Audio & AudioJnr


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## Forero

In my American pronunciation, _oral_ has a rather close [o] sound and _aural_ a more open sound (closer to [ɔ]). The two _o_ sounds represent the same phoneme, but the _r_ of _aural_ begins the second syllable and so does not color the previous vowel:

_or_-_al_ [_or_ as in _core_, _door_]
_au_-_ral_ [_au_ as in _auto_, _saw_]


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## relic5.2

I say the second one to differentiate between the two — there's a big difference in having an aural exam and an oral exam — but they are meant to be pronounced the same as far as I can remember.


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## audiolaik

relic5.2 said:


> there's a big difference in having an aural exam and an oral exam



That's the point, relic5.2! Thank you, Forero, for your input.


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## ewie

Welcome back, Mr.Laik.  (I hadn't noticed you'd been away, to be honest)

Back in the 19th 20th century when I was a little chap learning foreign languages, I had more than one teacher who was always careful to pronounce _oral_ as /ɔːrəl/ and _aural_ as /aʊrəl/.

To be honest*, though, the word _aural_ barely exists outside language-learning classrooms, I reckon.

*I _was _being honest before, of course.


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## soccergal

I think it's regional.  There's not much of a distinction in the way I pronounce oral and aural.  (Except that I usually pronounce aural: _listening _ )


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## brian

If _aural_ were just any other normal word, with no reason to be distinguished from some other word (like _oral_), then to be perfectly honest, I think I'd pronounce it exactly like _oral_. I'm not sure why, seeing as I pronounce _auto, augment, Auburn University, Lauper, pauper, fauna,_ etc. etc. differently, i.e. with /ɑ/ and not /o/.

Maybe the reason I would instinctively pronounce _aural_ with /o/ instead of /ɑ/ is due to the following /r/. After all, I (usually*) say _aura, laurel, Laura,_ and _taurus_ with /o/.

However, because I know that that would create a homonym with _oral_, and those two words are of similar meaning as to create much confusion, I consciously force myself to pronounce the vowel as /ɑ/.

*sometimes I pronounce _aura_ with /ɑ/ simply because I think I'm supposed to, but /o/ is more natural for some reason. Similarly, _Laura_ with /o/ is more natural, but if the girl specifically pronounces her name with /ɑ/, then I will do so as well.


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## Dan2

audiolaik said:


> Here's another pronunciation question. How do you tend to pronounce the word "aural"?
> 
> a) ɔːrəl  /ɔː/ as in horse
> b) aʊrəl /aʊ/ as in owl


Hi.  I've never heard "aural" pronounced with the vowel (actually, dipththong) of "owl", so I looked up the word in several American and British dictionaries.
None of them had that pronunciation.  I'm curious where you heard or saw it.


brian said:


> If _aural_ were just any other normal word, with no reason to be distinguished from some other word (like _oral_), then to be perfectly honest, I think I'd pronounce it exactly like _oral_.


I think this is true of the majority of Americans - they would normally pronounce words spelled "oral" and "aural" identically, but sometimes try to distinguish them by using different vowels from among [o], [ɔ], and [ɑ].  However there are more conservative dialects in which you'd normally expect these words to differ, again thru choice of different vowels from the above. (The situation concerning pronunciation of "o" and "au" before "r" in the US is very complex.)


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## Brioche

audiolaik said:


> Hi,
> 
> Welcome back after a series of life's ups and downs, including drinking bouts, etc.
> 
> Here's another pronunciation question. How do you tend to pronounce the word "aural"?
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> Audio & AudioJnr



I pronounce _aural_ as /ˈɔːrəl/, and _oral_ as /ˈɒrəl/.

I know some folk who pronounce both _aural _and _oral_ as /ˈɔːrəl/.

I know that it is traditional  RP [Received Pronunciation], but it seems daft to me.

Is that /ˈɔːrəl/ exam about testing my listening comprehension or speaking skills?

Is /ˈɔːrəl/ hygiene taking care of my eyes or my ears?  Big difference in by book whether my false teeth or hearing-aids are properly cared for!


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## boozer

Brioche said:


> I pronounce _aural_ as /ˈɔːrəl/, and _oral_ as /ˈɒrəl/.


I do that too. And before I looked them both up in a dictionary, I thought I was doing the right thing 

According to Daniel Jones, however, I should pronounce both as in Audio's a/, so now I'm again confused. 

And I don't know who's to blame - Audio or Daniel Jones.


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## nzfauna

In NZE:

Oral is pronounced ɒ.rəl

Aural is pronounced oː.rəl


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## natkretep

Yes, I'm like Brioche. Long vowel for 'aural' and short vowel for 'oral'.

I regularly hear the term 'aural test' in the context of music exams, although sometimes this is rephrased as 'ear test'. This is in contrast to 'oral exams' in the context of language learning.


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## Rival

For me, 'oral' has the same vowel as hop, hot, top, knot.
and 'aural' has the vowel of or, for, (same sound as core, more, but shorter)


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## ewie

For me  /ˈɒrəl/ is a place in Lancashire and nothing else.


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## se16teddy

Like Relic and Ewie, I recall that in the days when I studied languages, and did various oral and aural tests, some of my teachers pronounced _aural _with the vowel of _owl_, not because they thought it was correct but in order to distinguish _aural_ from _oral_.


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## Brioche

boozer said:


> I do that too. And before I looked them both up in a dictionary, I thought I was doing the right thing
> 
> According to Daniel Jones, however, I should pronounce both as in Audio's a/, so now I'm again confused.
> 
> And I don't know who's to blame - Audio or Daniel Jones.




In my edition of  Daniel Jones - the fourteenth - he gives /ˈɒrəl/ as an alternative pronunciation for *oral*.


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## boozer

That is extremely strange, Brioche. Mine is fourteenth too. The word is on page 353. And there's no /ˈɒrəl/ there.


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## ><FISH'>

I would casually say it as "Oral", but if needed to distinguish them then I would say "Arral". A literal "au" sound is not comfortable or natural to pronounce.


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## Brioche

boozer said:


> That is extremely strange, Brioche. Mine is fourteenth too. The word is on page 353. And there's no /ˈɒrəl/ there.



Keep looking! Read page 353 carefully.

The entry is
*or*|*al* (s. adj) , *-als, -ally, *ˈɔːr|əl [ˈɒr-], -əlz, -əlɪ, [-ļɪ]

The part I have highlighted in blue, indicates a variant pronunciation of ˈɔːr is ˈɒr
They do not write the whole word again, just the part in front of | .  
Similarly with the variant [-ļɪ], they just write the ending, and not the whole word.

As is explained on page xxiv,  - _When variants are enclosed in [] ... it is to be understood that there occur two or more pronunciations of the word, but it has been judged that the forms enclosed in [], although widely used are somewhat less common than the unenclosed form._


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## Forero

I think my _au_ in _auto_, _aural_ is actually an [ɒ], more open than [ɔ] in French _bonne_, but definitely not [ɑ].

I don't distinguish stressed _or_ from_ ore_ (both with [oə˞], and I use the same vowel in _oral_.


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## Kumpel

soccergal said:


> There's not much of a distinction in the way I pronounce oral and aural.  (Except that I usually pronounce aural: _listening _ )



Definitely. I also agree with Ewie's existing-in-a-bare-manner comment.
I'd go as far as to say that I pronounce them both identically.

I would assume that an ˈɔːɹəl exam is and oral exam, because I would expect _listening _instead of _aural_.

When I did my GCSEs a few months ago, our German exams were...
Oral (Though, I would have expected _Speaking_ to fit in with the gerunds.)
*Listening *and Responding
Reading and Responding
Writing

But that's off-topic; the issue is pronunciation.

My answer: oral & aural are both /ˈɔːɹəl/.


Lloyd


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## natkretep

Kumpel said:


> I would assume that an ˈɔːɹəl exam is and oral exam, because I would expect _listening _instead of _aural_.


 
That is true in the context of language exams. _Aural test_ is however an established term in music exams, such as those offered by the Associated Board. The alternative term, as mentioned above, is _ear test_.


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## Pedro y La Torre

Definitely option B.

As an aside, at school (and college) I always had "aural exams", never "listening" ones.


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## Spira

Pedro y La Torre said:


> Definitely option B.
> 
> As an aside, at school (and college) I always had "aural exams", never "listening" ones.


 
Same here (in southern England in the 70s), and they were pronounced to rhyme with OWL. I did find it a little curious at the time, but it was constant.


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## Loob

Like ewie and others, I pronounce "oral" and "aural" identically, unless there's a need to stress that I'm talking 'ear-related' rather than 'mouth-related'. Which happens very seldom.  I can't, off-hand, think of a situation in which the context wouldn't make it clear which one was meant.


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## relic5.2

Loob said:


> Like ewie and others, I pronounce "oral" and "aural" identically, unless there's a need to stress that I'm talking 'ear-related' rather than 'mouth-related'. Which happens very seldom.  I can't, off-hand, think of a situation in which the context wouldn't make it clear which one was meant.



Teacher: We're going to have an /-ɔːrəl/ exam this time next week.
Student: A listening  or a speaking one, miss?

Is the only time I can think of one. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rhymes:English:-ɔːrəl


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## Pedro y La Torre

I've always heard oral and aural pronounced differently. I never thought people might pronounce them alike.

Perhaps it's because I studied French at university and so frequently ran into the word in contexts where it was necessary to distinguish between the two.


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## Loob

relic5.2 said:


> Teacher: We're going to have an /-ɔːrəl/ exam this time next week.
> Student: A listening or a speaking one, miss?
> 
> Is the only time I can think of one.


Even then ... 
I honestly can't remember any tests in which all I did was listen and write, not speak.

Perhaps I'm out of date?

PS. The same question applies to Pedro's comment above...


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## relic5.2

Pedro, neither did I 'til I was in third year and our exam superintendent told us the oral exam was 40 minutes long and we were all quite surprised at this 'insane' pronunciation of aural. 

A dictionary fixed us up, though we still differentiate them.

Loob, it's common now when learning languages (at least here). There's an aural exam, where a tape is played and you answer questions on it, as well as an oral exam where you speak to someone and then finally there's a written exam with comprehensions and essays. The aural and written are usually bundled in one go, with the oral done beforehand because it's not feasible to do them all at once (imagine the amount of proctors needed to accurately examine however many thousand students sit the leaving and junior certs each year!)


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## Loob

Ah, thanks, relic!

Clearly I am out of date...

I can see that in those circumstances it would be useful to distinguish pronunciation-wise between an aural exam (listening and writing) and an oral exam (listening and speaking). In that context, I would certainly use the "ow" pronunciation of "aural".


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## JulianStuart

Just thought I'd chime in with a "They're the same for me" too.  (iron) "ore - əl".

Even though they turn out to be spelled (spelt) differently, they bring to mind the two words _cleave_ and _cleave_ which are also pronounced identically but mean opposite things - to bind together or to split apart


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## relic5.2

I believe such words are called contranyms, sanction and (to) dust come to mind as well!


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## merquiades

Forero said:


> _or_-_al_ [_or_ as in _core_, _door_]
> _au_-_ral_ [_au_ as in _auto_, _saw_]



I also make this same distinction between oral and aural.  But having said that, "aural" is a word that does not exist in my active vocabulary.  I would probably replace it always with "listening" unless I were writing an essay and had to avoid repeating "listening" twice.  Therefore, when I say "aural" it never sounds really natural.


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## tomtombp

<< Moderator's note: This thread has been added to a previous thread. Please read from the top. >>

Is aural pronounced the exact same way as oral? How can I tell that I'm offered an oral pleasure or an aural pleasure?


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## Sabretooth

In my dialect, yes, the two are pronounced the same way. As with all homonyms, you would differentiate the two based on context.


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## KHS

I pronounce them slightly differently (although I haven't always done so).  
Cambridge dictionaries online provide audio files with the pronunciations.


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## e2efour

They are normally identical. I read that _aural_ is sometimes pronounced with the _"_mouth" vowel, but I have never heard anyone say this.
I have heard _oral_ pronounced as in _sorrel_/_moral_, but I hardly think this is acceptable.


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## Chasint

BE: In the teaching profession it is necessary sometimes to use both of these terms and be able to hear the difference. I have heard teachers say:

oral ----> orral ----> /'ɒrəl/

aural ----> ow-ral ----> /'aʊrəl/


*ipa chart* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English


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## Susan Y

Biffo said:


> BE: In the teaching profession it is necessary sometimes to use both of these terms and be able to hear the difference. I have heard teachers say:
> 
> oral ----> orral
> 
> aural ----> ow-ral



I've come across this too and find it really irritating. The context always makes it clear, in my experience, which is which.


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## e2efour

Biffo said:


> BE: In the teaching profession it is necessary sometimes to use both of these terms and be able to hear the difference.



So you are advocating different pronunciations? Why is it necessary?


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## KHS

I think, rather than advocating, people are reporting that some dialects pronounce them differently and others do not.  Since context is not always sufficient to determine which meaning is intended, different pronunciations can help clarify the situation.


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## waltern

I've heard speakers interject something like "that's aural with an a-u" when there was the possibility of confusion.


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## Chasint

e2efour said:


> So you are advocating different pronunciations? Why is it necessary?


I am not a schoolteacher but my ex-wife was. If one teacher is talking to another about testing the kids they don't want to stop every time to spell the word. It is much easier and more sensible to pronounce them differently. I don't care what they do but I understand the reason. There are similar problems with other words, for example there is the possible medical confusion in speech between hypertension and hypotension - it is crucial not to make this mistake. A clear distinction is vital for the welfare - even the life - of the patient.

I see no problem with people who need to know the difference without ambiguity using whatever pronunciation works for them.  Incidentally the two pronunciations that I gave actually echo the original pronunciations in Latin from which these words are ultimately derived.


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