'Eye-urn'?

American English is my first language. I've lived all my life in the Midwest but like those of us who grew up in the cities, I don't have (much of) a discernible accent. There is this one little idiosyncracy that I have, and I don't know when or how I developed it but I've never, ever heard anyone else with it.

I pronounce iron as 'eye-ron' (sometimes as '*EYE-run'). Everyone else says 'eye-urn'. Is this normal anywhere in any dialect or am I just weird?

It seems like a spelling pronunciation.

It can be foud in some Irish and Scottish accents but, whilst it's not common, it's certainly not unique.
the other one that only seems to happen around America is the Vee-Hickle/Vee-Ickle pronounciation for the word 'Vehicle'.
I've only ever heard Americans pronounce the 'H'.

<<I've only ever heard Americans pronounce the 'H'.>>

No, most Americans use the /h/-less pronunciation. The with-/h/ pronunciation is regionally marked.

Yeah, 'eye-ron' looks like the kind of pronunciation that many non-native speakers use, pretty definitely. I can attest that in Italy most ESLers sound it out that way everytime they say it.

They pronounce the word according to how the way its written seems to suggest. I guess that's what User meant by "spelling pronunciation."

With happy January wishes,

Achab

WHOA! Vehicle pronounced without the H?

I'm from Southern California, and we definitely pronounce the H in "vehicle."

Iron does not rhyme with Siren. It should be like ''I earn''

>> I'm from Southern California, and we definitely pronounce the H in "vehicle." <<

No, the vast majority of us do not. You may, though.

Typo alert:

In my posting above, "its written" should have been "it's written."

Apologies.

Achab

vehicle is in the which/witch class.

<<vehicle is in the which/witch class.>>

No it's not. I wouldn't be surprised if the distribution of /ˈvi:hɪkəl/ overlapped somewhat with that of /ʍ/ (the which-witch distinction), but they're completely different cases. /ʍ/ is a phoneme which is either present or absent; /ˈvi:hɪkəl/ is an isolated pronunciation that can be used within any dialectal phonology.

I found this by chance, while searching for another similar discussion I once read. This is interesting:

http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/174535/results

I used to pronounce it Eye-run until quite recently, and when I discovered it's actually Eye-earn I was shocked. Everyone here says "eye-run" because of dumbass teachers who teach you so. Pronunciation is basically not taught.

To LAZAR.
I wasn't saying tht all Americans used the 'H' variant. Just that I'd only ever heard it in a few American accents.

When I was a kid, I got confused with this word because for some reason, some scholarly kid from a very good school pronounced iron as I-run. However, after checking the dictionary, I have since been confident that the pronunciation is indeed I-yurn or I-yaern. If you check your dictionary, and if your familiar with phonetics, it is pronounced as such, i.e., \ˈī(-ə)rn\. Check it here:

http://www.englishworldtv.biz/e-library.html

I hope this helps.

Most Americans pronounce 'iron' as 'EYE-urn'