For your reference
There is an ongoing argument in this house concerning the correct pronunciation of certain words, and it has only become more heated now that we are helping our child shape her vocabulary. One of my worst fears about living in Utah has always been that Leta would develop a Mormon accent, that there would be nothing I could do to stop her from dropping the T's in the middle of her words -- mountain sounds like mao-in -- or constantly speaking at a deafening volume so that she can be heard over her 14 brothers and sisters.
Jon was raised in northern Utah and is descended from polygamists. Consequently, he can rarely speak a whole sentence without butchering the English language. I just recently noticed that he drops the L's in the middle of his words so that walk becomes wok, talk becomes tak, and chalk becomes a furball caught in the back of his throat. When I pointed out his mistake he claimed that the L is supposed to be silent, and to prove it to me he looked up each word in two separate dictionaries. Both references backed up his claim, but this doesn't surprise me. Dictionaries have always been written by Yankees, and have you ever heard one of them talk?
The one debate that will not die is the one over whether crayon is pronounced cray-on or crown. Jon maintains that crayon is a two-syllable word, CRAY ON, but he also listens to jazz. Both are forgivable but indicative of soft spots in the brain. My sister and I have always pronounced it CROWN. Why use the energy on two syllables when you can get it done with one? Save that second syllable for the precious list of demands you're going to bark at your husband later.
Here is an audio clip of the correct pronunciation of crayon. Also, if you are one of those people who pronounce it CRAN, my hope is that the next time you allow yourselves to release such an obnoxious sound into the world you temporarily go deaf so that your ears don't rot off from the pain.
You must have a dooce® Community account to leave a comment.
If you've already registered, login.
If this is your first time posting here, snag a free account.
FM Living
Trish said:
we say cray-on but then I also sound like I'm on Coffee talk with the ladies when I say dawg and tawlk. I'll have to ask my best friend in SC (born and raised there) how she says it.
05.15.06 - 01:48 PM / 1R said:
CRAY-on!!
I've said my peace.
05.15.06 - 01:49 PM / 2blurb said:
It's a non-stop Block Party Jam™ of Steely Dan for the next three weeks, baby.
05.15.06 - 01:51 PM / 3Erin said:
www.mirriamwebster.com has a handy little audio tool that pronounces all the words for you.
I'm sorry to say that crayon has two syllables, and the Ls in walk, talk, and chalk are silent.
I would, however, love to hear how one would actually pronounce those words with a spoken L. Another audio clip, please? I love them!
05.15.06 - 01:52 PM / 4Askew Adventures said:
I'm with you Heather, totally crown. I am exceptionally picky when it comes to pronunciations. I'm sure many of my friends and coworkers over the years have wanted to hit me for correcting their pronunciation on a totally meaningless word. I had a coworker at my last position that was from Northeast Philly, which is positively THE WORST accent and pronunciation problem prone area I've ever heard. I cringed listening to her talk, which was often since I sat in the cube directly in front of her.
I haven't noticed the "mormon" accent, but now I'm going to be on the listen for it.
05.15.06 - 01:53 PM / 5Tara Whitney said:
crown is what sits atop a king or queen.
CRAY-on is what my kids color with.
sorry h. siding with the other half on this one.
05.15.06 - 01:56 PM / 6jennifer curry said:
i definitely do not have a mormon accent -- but i still think it is cray-on.
05.15.06 - 01:56 PM / 7Dayna Lee said:
Daaaaaang! I thought my Arkansas/Oklahoma accent was bad. =)
05.15.06 - 01:56 PM / 8Tara Whitney said:
atop the HEAD of a king or queen. sorry.
one more thing-if you asked me for the magenta crown i would say wtf are you talking about? lol
05.15.06 - 01:57 PM / 9Babs said:
Hmm.
Can't go with you on this one. I have always pronounced it cray-on.
But then again, I have always listened to jazz.
05.15.06 - 01:58 PM / 10Diana Schnuth said:
My Mom grew up in southern Ohio, for the most part, and her mother was raised in Florida, just for reference. I grew up in NE Ohio, with their influence.
I pronounce the word CRAY-on. However, I also used to pronounce the word "coupon" as Q-pon, until my husband trained me to say it KOO-pon. I also grew up thinking we put our clothes in a chester drawers (rather than a chest of drawers), and attached a hose to a spicket (instead of a spigot).
Here's one for you: does the word "tour" have two syllables or one? That argument between my high school band director and the rest of the band was never satisfactorily settled.
05.15.06 - 01:59 PM / 11fabulousgirl7 said:
I absolutely agree with Jon on this one. Up here in Canada, I've never heard it pronounced CROWN. Besides, if it was CROWN, it wouldn't sound like CRAYOLA, and why else would one name a CRAY-ON brand CRAYOLA? Yup, definitely CRAY-ON.
05.15.06 - 02:02 PM / 12Very Mom said:
It's CREN, people. CRENS.
05.15.06 - 02:02 PM / 13Babs said:
Crens?
...
05.15.06 - 02:04 PM / 14junkyardlove said:
Try being from Upstate NY (we're talking up by Canada)where "crayon," is pronounced "cran." One syllable, and make it kinda nasal-sounding.
05.15.06 - 02:04 PM / 15Hope said:
when I saw this post I HAD to comment, (I LOVE your site by he way; my husband always knows i'm reading dooce when I laugh so hard I fall off the couch!)
We have this argument all the time in our house, but my husband is from Boston so he says Cray-ON with a boston accent while I say Crain, with my horrible New England accent.
I will say nothing is as bad as my grandmother that say Ohio as Oh-he-o
05.15.06 - 02:04 PM / 16Babs said:
Oh my God.
05.15.06 - 02:04 PM / 17Megan said:
One vote for CRAY-on. At least that's how we pronouce it here in the Northeast. Love the accent, by the way.
05.15.06 - 02:05 PM / 18floydwood said:
it's cray-on in australia
05.15.06 - 02:05 PM / 19iwouldlovetohearfromyou said:
My Yankee blood says it Cran, like gram, bam, slam, jam...crayon. I never understood how people can say, Cray-on and be ok with it. That sounds like some disease, or maybe an undiscovered fish at the bottom of the Yellow Sea.
05.15.06 - 02:05 PM / 20yogurtweaver said:
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
CRAY-ON.
CRAY-ON.
CRAY-ON.
[deep breath]
Sorry Dooce, but I'm with Jon on this one.
05.15.06 - 02:06 PM / 21Mark B. said:
I am neither a Yankee nor a Mormon and I have neither of the respective accents.
I say: Cray-on
I say: Tak
I say: Wok
And so on.
I'm actually curious Heather, if a dictionary didn't convince you (at least) that Tak and Wok, what on earth could convince you? I.e. what would it take for you to say: "Ok John you are right."?
05.15.06 - 02:07 PM / 22Carli said:
As much as I love ya Heather, Jon is correct. Your dialect is just a bit too Southern. Cray-on. And yes, lots of silent "L's." But hey, you're much better looking, so maybe you could do a puppet show and he could do the talking and you could mouth the words. My mental picture is getting a little x-rated, so maybe share that when Leta's asleep.
05.15.06 - 02:07 PM / 23jes said:
Oh, wow. Until you actually spelled "cee-arrr-aee-yiiy-ohh-iiin" I never realized just how deeply the South affected your accent. No wonder you pronounce it "crown."
I'm with Jon on this one.
05.15.06 - 02:07 PM / 24Paul Bailey said:
Pronunciation variation is a delightful source of disagreement in my household, northern Englishman versus occasional Californian valley girl.
Of particular teeth-grinding heinousness to me are 'months', pronounced as 'munce', and 'clothes', pronounced as 'cloze'. And it seems to be that the standard US pronunciation of 'mirror' is heading very quickly to 'meer', if it hasn't got there already.
(Oh, and it's cray-on, by the way.)
05.15.06 - 02:07 PM / 25kelley said:
I hail from California, so I have no accent AT ALL.
CRAY-ON.
And, wok, tak, chok. All correct. Sorry, Heather.
05.15.06 - 02:08 PM / 26Tracey said:
As an Aussie, I've never _heard_ of crayon being pronounced "crown" !!! (I mustn't watch enough American shows on TV!!) A crayon is a cray-on - and it's got nothing to do one's personal music preferences!!! If you pronounce crayon as 'crown'... how do you pronounce 'crown' ???!!!
I am however enjoying this within-US debate on pronunciation.
05.15.06 - 02:09 PM / 27langus said:
I am from Seattle. I talk (with a silent L) like people on TV. It is cray-on. A crown is what you get on your teeth or you put on your head.
05.15.06 - 02:10 PM / 28Catrain said:
Cheese and crackers will ya? What's this "crown" buzinazz? I grew up in the Nasally Northwest not really coloring with crowns. But now I'm confused in how I myself pronounce it. Stage fright is gripping my ankles. I think I almost mush the two syllables of "cray-on" into a "crane"...
05.15.06 - 02:11 PM / 29Erin said:
Ohh, the point about Cray-ola and cray-on is spot on!
05.15.06 - 02:11 PM / 30