How to pronounce lawyer

In most of the United States, Lawyer is pronounced to rhyme with “boy,” (loyer). In the south, excluding Texas and Florida (not really south I’ve been told), it is pronounced to rhyme with “saw,” (law-yer). Southerners put the law into lawyer.

This is an interesting one because part of Texas follow suit with the rest of the Southern states. The areas in blue, which is most of the South, means that people there pronounce the word as “law-yer.” The residents in the red zone pronounce it as “loyer,” with the first syllable sounding like “boy.”

When and how did the Americans and English legal systems diverge on the terms used for professional practitioners of the law? England uses barrister and solicitor, while America uses attorney and lawyer.