Pronunciation of "lorry", "worry" and "sorry"

I have always pronounced lorry as "lur-ee" (as if to rhyme with worry), for as long as I can remember. Everyone else I know pronounces it as "lor-ee" (as if to rhyme with sorry).

Which one is correct, and why would the pronunciation of the vowel differ between sorry and worry when their spellings differ only in a consonant?

Solution 1:

I don't do "correct", but I've never heard anybody pronounce "lorry" to rhyme with "worry".

I believe that the difference is because of the lip-rounding of the /w/. Many words starting with "w", "wh", "sw", "qu" or "squ" have different vowel sounds from similar words with a different consonant.

Eg

• watch, what vs patch, thatch, pat, that
• war, warm, swarm vs far, farm
• worth, worm vs forth, form

(There are exceptions to this rule).

Solution 2:

There is a case that "lurry" is the original pronunciation.

The Online Etymological Dictionary gives this origin: "a truck; a long, flat wagon," 1838, British railroad word, probably from verb lurry "to pull, tug"(1570s), of uncertain origin. Meaning "large motor vehicle for carrying goods" is first attested 1911."

According to Wikipedia, meanwhile, before the railway "lorry" is attested in 1838 there was a horse-drawn "lorry", a low flat trailer for transporting other vehicles. Both of these were also referred to as "lurries" in the early period and this pronunciation seems to have been preserved in English dialect.

"Lurry" is certainly used here in Stockport by older and more conservative locals, but I first heard "lurry" from my grandmother (b. 1907 Cockfield, County Durham) referring to the horse drawn vehicle used to take her on a Sunday school picnic as a girl. She distinguished between that and the motorised "lorry".

I must point out though that the "u" of "lurry" as pronounced in the Teedale dialect of that generation is not the same as in Greater Manchester now; it is not as rounded as Yorks-Lancs /ʊ/ but not as open as the Southern English /ʌ/ I'd guess, but I am not a phonetician. I do know, however, that at the time the horse-drawn lorry was being transformed into the steam drawn lorry the English "u" was in a state of flux. My guess is that the spelling of "lorry" first recorded as a railway term in 1838 was originally an approximation to a dialectal pronunciation. The pronunciation "as spelled" has since become the norm.

Solution 3:

I grew up in NW UK saying lurry (for lorry) but my more 'northern' boyfriend and his family insisted it was lorry so I changed my pronunciation.