"drawer"

sho   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 17:16 GMT
for how many of you does "drawer" as in "a drawer of the table" is pronounced differently than drawer which means "a person who draws"?
and if you make a difference in your pronunciation, how do you pronounce the two differently?

i've heard that in some parts of the US "draw" as the one on the table rhymes with "door" or "pour", and a person who draws rhymes with "star" or "car". For how many of you is this the case?
David Winters   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 19:03 GMT
I've never referred to someone who draws as a "drawer". I use the word "artist," as does everyone that I know.
Kirk   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 20:51 GMT
Drawer in terms of the furniture item is [dro:r] for me. "Draw" is [dra:] for me, so "a person who draws" I would pronounce [dra:..r].
Ed   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 21:42 GMT
In New York it's pronounced [dro:...r]
american nic   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 21:59 GMT
I'm the same as Kirk.
Tiffany   Sunday, January 16, 2005, 23:18 GMT
Well, technically, I'd say the same as Kirk, but I'd never call someone who draws a drawer... I'd call them an artist.
Jim   Monday, January 17, 2005, 00:08 GMT
You don't have to be an artist to draw.

to put stuff in: /dro:/

one who draws: /dro:r../
Tiffany   Monday, January 17, 2005, 00:24 GMT
I'd just never call the person who drew something a "drawer". Maybe this is because of my line of work - I'm a graphic designer. Even my 8 year old cousin - if she draws something, I call her "the little artist" even though she's not a professional.
Ed   Tuesday, January 18, 2005, 02:32 GMT
Tiffany,

that's a funny thing you said, because with me it's just the opposite. My professor once said that someone was a drawer and i was about to crack up when i realized what he really meant.
sho   Thursday, January 20, 2005, 14:46 GMT
sorry i made a typo in my previous post.

i've heard that in some parts of the US "draw" as the one on the table rhymes with "door" or "pour", and a person who draws rhymes with "star" or "car".

I meant "some parts of the US drawer as the one...". sorry about the confusion.

Thanks everyone for your answers!

Jim, how about the drawer as a part of furniture? Kirk, you pronounce a person who draws as /dra:..r/. how is /a:..r/ different from /a:r/ as in the word "car"? I know there's a shwa indecated in the phonetic transcription but I don't hear the difference.

another interesting thing is that Jim inserts an r in the word "drawer" as in "a person who draws" according to his phonetic transcription. Is it kind of like "idea of..." being pronounced like "idear of" in non-rhotic accents?
How about "drawing"? Do non-rhotic speakers pronounce it like /dro:riN/?
how about in rhotic accents?
Kirk   Thursday, January 20, 2005, 22:34 GMT
Sho, for me there's a definite boundary between the [a:] and the [..r] in "person who draws"...if I were to say that...it would sound more like draw-er rather than a combined diphthonglike [a:..r]...this is surely because of the morphological separation of the "er" from the "draw", so at least it my speech it would be a clearly defined [..r]. Same for "drawing", which I pronounce [dra:iN], with two clearly defined vowels as compared to the [ai] diphthong in a word such as "time".

I don't speak a nonrhotic accent but last year I did have a professor who was from the UK and he definitely said [dro:riN], along with other phrases with other r-insertions (it was a world history class so he would often say things like "Asiar, Indiar, Australiar, Africar, the lawr is" etc., when a word with a vowel followed)...it was interesting to listen to :)
Jim   Thursday, January 20, 2005, 23:53 GMT
I do the same. They call it an "intervocalic /r/". Yes, I say /dro:riN/ for "drawing" and yes, it's the same thing that is happening in "idea of", "Asia is", "law about", etc.

I pronounce the word "drawer" as a part of furniture (which you put stuff in) /dro:/. It rhymes with "poor", "pour", "door", "saw" and is a homophone for "draw".
Smith   Friday, January 21, 2005, 03:09 GMT
I thought they call the kind of /r/ inserted where there's no ''r'' in the spelling an intrusive /r/. An intervocalic /r/ is like the one in ''marry'', ''carry'', ''arrow'', ''curry'', ''starry'', ''storing'' (which everyone pronounces and is spelled with an ''r'').
Kerry   Friday, January 21, 2005, 03:12 GMT
Jim, ''drawer'' and ''draw'' are not homonyms.

drawer-[dro:r]

draw-[dra:]

''door'' and ''saw'' don't rhyme, [do:r] and [sa:].
Someone   Friday, January 21, 2005, 03:14 GMT
I'm the same as kirk as well.