DKC Atlas Forum

I know this is pretty random, but this is something that I find kind of interesting... I talk to my sister a lot about different word pronunciations and I like to figure out if there is a specific region more prone to saying certain things or pronouncing something a certain way.

Perhaps I should explain a little bit more... When I say the word "mirror" I typically pronounce it like "mere" with one syllable, which is kind of common in my area. My sister lives in Chicago and she has noticed that people tend to say "mir-or."

What kinds of word pronunciations have you noticed about the area in which you live? Have you noticed anything weird about the way anybody you know pronounces something (I'm not talking about speech impediments or saying things like "pa-sket-ti" instead of "spa-get-ti")?

I'll give some examples from my region. When we see "creek" written, we say "crick." We say "jaggers" when we talk about "briars" or "thorns" (blackberry bushes). We say "pop" and not "soda." I live somewhat close to Pittsburgh, but I don't have a true Pittsburgh accent, so...

Here are some examples of Pittsburghese (dialect specific to Pittsburgh): "haahs" = "house", "daahn" = "down", "Stillers" = "Steelers" (Pittsburgh's football team). In Pittsburgh, they draw out o's like long a's. Also, "jaggoff" is something you call an a**hole or jerk, "buggies" are shopping carts, and a "gumband" is a rubber band. They also say "yinz" for "you guys" or maybe sort of like how some people say "ya'll" kind of. Here's a great example of Pittsburghese,



Yes, that is how people talk in Pittsburgh. 100% legit.

So what kinds of odd words or pronunciations do you use or have you heard? I have one thing I'm currently wondering... how do you pronounce "measure?" I say it like "may-zhur" not "meh-zhur." How do you say it, and if you're comfortable telling me, where do you hail from? I'm wondering if it's a regional specific thing.

There seems to be this big general debate about the pronunciation of pecan. Kinda weird when you consider I live in Texas where most of us get butthurt if you pronounce it a way different to what people are used to.

From my understanding, if you don't pronounce it 'puh-kahn', and instead say 'pee-can', you're wrong. but I go back and forth. Same with route, caramel/carmel, and coupon. Reminds me of the Tumblr Accent Challenge, really.

Also, we pronounce mirror as 'mere-er'.

Linguistics!

For the ones you've listed, I'll go through and tell you how I say them:
pecan = pea-con
caramel = car-mle (one of the most vial "foods" in existence )
coupon - cue-pon
route = rowt

One that I recently heard that sort of drives me a little crazy is crayon. Where I'm teaching, everybody says it like "cray-ahn" almost close to being one syllable, but just barely separated into two...maybe like "cray'ahn"... and I say it like "cray-on."

There has to be more odd pronunciations out there! I'd love to hear them!

There's more than one pronounciation of crayon?!

Yuppers! Crayola even has a page with a question being how to pronounce "crayon" correctly!

Also, I did a youtube search and this guy talks about the pronunciation of it, but start at around 37 seconds, because he starts off talking about hamburgers for some reason... but you can hear both pronunciations.

If there's one thing I've learned about Scott Manley, it's that Kilometers is spelled in Scottish as KILL-LOH-MET-URS and not KILL-LOH-MEEH-TURS as in english.

An interesting topic!

For me it's all about fruit; I was raised to pronounce "persimmon" as per-SIM-'n, and "loquat" as LO-quat, but I tend to hear others in my area (and elsewhere around the world) pronounce them PER-sa-m'n and LO-k't respectively.

Also, I've always found it amusing when I hear the name "Craig" pronounced like CREG, rather than CRAIG; when did ai become an "e" sound?