Silly question: How do you pronounce Tarot?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Deana	12 May 2005
I grew up hearing Tarot pronounced such that it rhymes with sparrow and I never questioned it. Until...I saw this goofy video about Tarot and a guy in a tuxedo pronounced it so it rhymed with carrot. Of course, he called the Celtic Cross the Secret Circle of Solomon Spread, so I thought he might have been simply mistaken. Then I started flipping through a library book and the author said to pronounce it Teh-ro with the accent on the "-ro" and no "air" sound in the first syllable. I know we have people here from all over the world. How do you pronounce Tarot?

closrapexa	12 May 2005
Hmmmm... good question. Actually I never thought to ask, but I pronounce it TA-row, with the emphasis on the first syllable, like sparrow, as you said. However, in hebrew, I pronounce it TA-rotte, with the emphasis on the first syllable and a strong T at the end, because everybody else does.

Reed	12 May 2005
Terrific question! In my corner of the midwest, I've noticed that people who do not read pronounce it like 'sparrow'. Those who do read pronounce it teh-ro. I'm still deciding :D

Fudugazi	12 May 2005
well, doesn't it also depend on how you pronounce sparrow ;)? I say tah -roh (accent on first syllable) and spah -roh (ditto) in French (original language for the word Tarot) I say Tah -rô (with a round O) unnaccented.

tmgrl2	12 May 2005
Like Helvetica...I say Tah-roh

rainwolf	12 May 2005
I read in a book that it can be several different ways, but the two in the example had it rhyme with "sparrow" and "furrow".

HudsonGray	12 May 2005
I rhyme it with 'sparrow' too.

mike gorth	12 May 2005
This is really freaky. Today I was wondering about if someone asked this what would be my resonse. That is scary. Anyway, T-air-o The t-air is pronounced as one. like hair with a t. And the o is stressed so it's like how you say it in the alphabet. Mike Gorth

similia	12 May 2005
Well I have an Australia accent, so when I say Tarot it rhymes with crocodile KIDDING!! I always thought it rhymes with sparrow, and it irritates me hugely when people pronounce the T! (sorry closrapexa :) )

Emeraldgirl	12 May 2005
similia wrote: Well I have an Australia accent, so when I say Tarot it rhymes with crocodile KIDDING!! Me too!!!!!!!!!!! :D I just feel special knowing it's a silent "t" at the end (seemongly not too well known down here) and I guess I say it so it ryhmes with sparrow in Aussie

Ace	12 May 2005
mike gorth wrote: T-air-o The t-air is pronounced as one. like hair with a t. And the o is stressed so it's like how you say it in the alphabet. Mike Gorth Yep! We Mid-westerners pronounce it like that Mike! Actually, it is a snobbism on my part that if you pronouce it Tair-rot, then you are ignorant-of Tarot anyway. I pronounced it like that until I started my first class on it. I must learn not to judge. But still, I have never heard someone who knows anything about tarot pronounce the final "t". Ace

similia	12 May 2005
Ta.... rot, rot, rot, your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. :D

Violinagin	12 May 2005
When I think about it, I pronounce it 'tair-row' but if I'm just talking, sometimes it will come out 'tarrot.' It stems from the fact I do more reading than talking about it, and I learned I was pronouncing it wrong rather late.. @_@...

Chara	13 May 2005
Well, my "tarot" rhymes with "sparrow" but I'm wondering if some people say sparrow the way I say it! My mother says "tah-row" and I say "taire-oh". Tah-row kills my Texan tongue, and always sounded kind of silly to me. Reminds me of this skit on one of Ja Rule's CDs called Leo, where he's "the cousin of the ***** that don't know what the **** she talk 'bout". He's "tahruh readin'!" (and he is psychic, and he is Leo..) I downloaded the answers.com .wav of "tarot" and that sounds like a "taire-oh", but I'm not really known for my hearing abilities...My mother and I have been talking about this though, so it's funny to see this topic just now! I've never heard it pronounced with the t at the end though. If I ever heard "tarot" that rhymed with "carrot" I would think they were talking about some sort of gardening tool (doesn't it sound like one?).

WolfSpirit	13 May 2005
closrapexa wrote: Hmmmm... good question. Actually I never thought to ask, but I pronounce it TA-row, with the emphasis on the first syllable, like sparrow, as you said. However, in hebrew, I pronounce it TA-rotte, with the emphasis on the first syllable and a strong T at the end, because everybody else does. We Dutchies pronounce it the same way as in Hebrew. It follows the rules of our spelling and pronunciation that way. Just because the English speakers are in the majority does not mean they are right - in fact, it is not logical they pronounce tarot the way a Frenchman does. It sounds like an affectation to me :laugh: but I know they consider it normal. Of course it does not really matter how you want to pronounce it.

Odette	13 May 2005
Most Norwegians (me included) pronounce it the same way as the Hebrew and the Deutchies. But some people pronounce it with the emphasis on the last syllable, and with the ending like the Frech word "eau".

Deana	13 May 2005
>>>it is not logical they pronounce tarot the way a Frenchman does. It sounds like an affectation to me but I know they consider it normal<<< Does this mean you pronounce ballet like ballot instead of the French way? Geez, we Americans can't win. If we pronounce a foreign word the way it's pronounced in the country it came from, it's an affectation. If we pronounce it the way it's spelled, we're dumb Americans. :) It's enough to give us a complex. In my little corner of the world, if I pronounced every word the way it looked in English just because English is my native language, I'd be offended a great many people. We have so many languages spoken in this city that the local high school doesn't know how to send home letters so the parents can understand them in the 140 languages native to them. (I can't even name 140 languages, but that's what the newspaper said. I do know that more than half the people in this city do not have English as a first language.)

mike gorth	13 May 2005
Chara wrote: Well, my "tarot" rhymes with "sparrow" but I'm wondering if some people say sparrow the way I say it! I say "taire-oh". Exactly how I say it. Also like tairow Mike Gorth

WolfSpirit	13 May 2005
Deana wrote: Does this mean you pronounce ballet like ballot instead of the French way? Nope, we pronounce the last syllable like pet, just the way we write it :laugh: Quote: Geez, we Americans can't win. Who said anything about Americans or winning ? ;) The English language is famous for its inconsistency between spelling and pronunciation. I learnt several languages and English spelling is really the pits. Every rule has about five million exceptions.

Deana	13 May 2005
Originally Posted by Deana Does this mean you pronounce ballet like ballot instead of the French way? >>>Nope, we pronounce the last syllable like pet, just the way we write it<<< But...Wolfspirit....That IS how I pronounce ballot! :)

WolfSpirit	13 May 2005
:laugh: Cool. I learn something new here everyday !

Fudugazi	13 May 2005
Deana wrote: Does this mean you pronounce ballet like ballot instead of the French way? Geez, we Americans can't win. If we pronounce a foreign word the way it's pronounced in the country it came from, it's an affectation. If we pronounce it the way it's spelled, we're dumb Americans. :) It's enough to give us a complex. LOL -comes from being powerful enough to put Mac Donald's on every street corner ;) (or as we say in French - MacDo). I suppose if we were all to say it correctly we ought to be saying: tarrochi (pronounced tah-rok-ee - to rhyme with Cherokee ;)) - and this reminds me of Sylvia Plath - : "with my tarock cards/my tarock cards/I am a bit of a witch".

Ace	13 May 2005
similia wrote: Ta.... rot, rot, rot, your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. :D ROTFL!!!!!!! I am suitably humbled. But about Ballet: I remember reading an Agatha Christy in which at the end a little girl write a diary with entries about wanting to take "bally" classes. Ace

Reed	13 May 2005
LOL This is such fun! You like po-tay-to and I like po-tah-to. You like to-may-to and I like to-mah-to. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, To-may-to, to-mah-to, Let's call the whole thing off! -George and Ira Gershwin

WolfSpirit	13 May 2005
similia wrote: Ta.... rot, rot, rot, your boat, Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. So in an Australian accent that would sound something like: Crocodile, crocodile, crocodile, crocodile gently down the stream...etc. Yeah, I guess they do that.

Emily	13 May 2005
I pronounce it 'tarrow' = tarot :)

Baby Owl	13 May 2005
There once was a girl from Shallotte Who incessantly read the tarotte... :D

Fudugazi	13 May 2005
...She bumped into a crow Who said "no, it's tarrow In your boat, if you do it a lot."

Baby Owl	13 May 2005
LOL!! ...when someone said, "No! You pronounce it Tah-RO!" It messed up her readings a lot.

jumptothemoonyea	13 May 2005
How much quality of the reading depends on the way Tarot is pronounced?

Fudugazi	13 May 2005
jumptothemoonyea wrote: How much quality of the reading depends on the way Tarot is pronounced? Oh it is essential ;) - imagine this person sitting across from you who, instead of concentrating on the timeless truths you are uttering, keeps churning in his mind - "she says tarot in a weird way - shouldn't it be tah-rotte? tah-rot? tair-oh?"

jumptothemoonyea	13 May 2005
My sympathy with the sitter. Anyway, who makes the pronunciation law? In the same country there are usually 10-20 ways to pronounce it.

Baby Owl	13 May 2005
And now, thanks to Deana's "silly" question, many of us are better informed than before. :)

Clau	13 May 2005
Down here we pronounce it Tarót accentuating the last o.

Fudugazi	13 May 2005
I think I might start pronouncing it the Sylvia Plath way. TAROCK cos' it rocks! and it rhymes with croc (hehe, enter the Aussie brigade, stage left)

Sulis	13 May 2005
Helvetica wrote: TAROCK cos' it rocks! Helvetica, that's just so funny :D :D You are bonkers, girl :D I pronounce it like sparrow :) but I may start saying Tarock too, just to confirm to my husband and kids that I'm completely mad. Sulis xx

The Silly question: How do you pronounce Tarot? thread was originally posted on 12 May 2005 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.