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I’m reading Alice in Wonderland, and found the following dialogue:
“The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise—”
“Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?” Alice asked.
“We called him a Tortoise because he taught us.”
What is the relationship between “he taught us” and “Tortoise”? Is this some kind of pun or joke?
The passage is funny because the Mock Turtle acts as an authority figure but uses abnormal logic and reason. This pretense of authority and twisting of logic are ongoing motifs of Alice in Wonderland.
By saying, "we called him Tortoise [ˈtʰɔː təs] because he taught us [ˈtʰɔt əs]", the Mock Turtle claims that this similarity of pronunciation is a valid reason to call a turtle "Tortoise". He implies that his own pronunciation-based logic is more valid than the actual ways to distinguish turtles and tortoises.
Note: In other dialects of English, such as American English, the pronunciation of "tortoise" [ˈtʰɔɹ ɾəs] is quite different from "taught us" [ˈtʰɒ ɾʌs]
This is a pun that needs to be understood in its context. Although he was a Turtle, his pupils called him a Tortoise, because:
'We called him a Tortoise because he taught us!' said the Mock Turtle angrily: 'really you are....'
It's a pun by Caroll.
It seems that Americans don't get this pun, because the American pronunciation of "tortoise" differs from the English pronunciation. Because Carroll was an Englishman and was writing to a British audience, it would have made sense to them.
In British English, "tortoise" is pronounced nearly exactly the same as "taught us", and that's why the students called the Turtle a "tortoise", even if he wasn't.
Tortoises are a species of turtle. A tortoise is a turtle. But a turtle is not explicitly a tortoise. In that respect they are the same.
However, tortoises are land animals while turtles are amphibious. That's the major difference.
Edit: The context above isn't making reference to the tortoise animal. They called him tortoise (pronounced "taught us") because he taught them, not because he was a tortoise. It's clearly a figure of speech - a funny one too because a tortoise is a type of turtle.
In the non-rhotic parts of southern England (where the Received Pronunciation that Carroll would have spoken comes from) the word tortoise (the usual word there for the land-dwelling reptile, turtle being reserved for sea- or freshwater-dwelling species) rhymes exactly with taught us. In the north of England the word is usually pronounced with the second syllable rhyming with voice. Carroll was writing, in the first instance, for an audience restricted by both geography and social class.
What is the relationship between "he taught us" and "Tortoise"?
It has to do with the pronunciation of the au and or sounds. The literally English pronunciation (the pronunciation in the English used in England) of the letter r, is not normally rhotic. If you learn of the non-rhotic pronunciation of the sound or and compare it with the English pronunciation of the au sound, you will understand. This makes the sounds of these two sounds, the same.
Therefore, the word taught and the "tort" part of the word tortoise, are pronounced the same. A lot of English (and other British) pronunciation is not rhotic.
Edit:
There is another point worth making, in relation to this. Even though the word taught and the "tort" part of the word tortoise rhyme, the words "taught us" and "tortoise" do not always rhyme in British English pronunciation.
There are people who pronounce them exactly the same. There are also people who pronounce tortoise as "tor-tos"; with a non-rhotic r and the os sound involving another, common pronunciation of the letter o; as it is in the British pronunciation of the words dog and copper. This, particular pronunciation of the letter o is in the English of England but, not in the English of North America (American English and Canadian English).
Since you asked what it means in this context: Turtle is a kind of animal. Or possibly, given the capitalisation, a member of some group known as the Turtles. Tortoise is the master's personal name or nickname.
tortoiseandthought usare different.