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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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escared
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1
2010/02/26 - 12:14pm

I'm wondering about the word “escared”. I have heard this word used on television, mostly in older shows, usually spoken by children. I have heard it used where the word “scared” would be appropriate to use. Anyone know about this word and its usage? Or is it just an alternative pronounciation of "scared"?

torpeau
Left coast of FL
97 Posts
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2
2010/02/26 - 5:16pm

People who have Spanish as their first language often put that "e" in front of words like scared. Maybe you remember Ricky Ricardo saying that to Lucy?

Guest
3
2010/02/27 - 1:32pm

For an adult, I completely agree with torpeau. To me, that invokes a person whose primary language is Spanish.

But, I know lots of children who say escared or ascared and they are born and raised in the USA to parents of all sorts of backgrounds. I don't know much about child language development, but I always took it to be a mixture of afraid and scared.

Guest
4
2010/02/27 - 2:47pm

Thanks for the info. What I am talking about is not the "e" sound added by some native Spanish speakers, but rather, when I have heard this word, it is spoken by native English speakers. Further, I now believe that it is the word "ascared" that I am hearing. I guess when I hear it, it sounds more like an "e" sound than an "a", and I never thought to look up "ascared". Dictionary.com has an entry for "ascared" which indicates that it is "Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.". I grew up in south Louisiana, but have never heard "ascared" spoken apart from television. Here is an example of the word in an old popular TV show, at about 6:00 into the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqMQDb9aG4A

Thanks so much for the response

Guest
5
2010/02/27 - 3:36pm

"Ascared" is, like "irregardless," a portmanteau -- the contraction or fusion of two distinct words that have a related meaning: "afraid" and "scared."

Guest
6
2010/02/27 - 4:12pm

I agree that ascared can be regional or ethnic.

The point I did not make clearly is that I have heard children say ascared even though it was not a regional pronunciation in their region, nor did their parents or anyone in their environment use that pronunciation. So I think there might also be a developmental possibility for that particular pronunciation.

Guest
7
2010/02/27 - 5:18pm

I wonder how wide the usage is, and whether it is being written in the scripts or, if it's common, the actors are saying what comes naturally to them. My daughter pointed out this usage in a modern kids tv program at about 1:07, so it's still around:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHj2PXxQ1kI

Guest
8
2010/03/06 - 9:42pm

My husband and his family are of Italian descent, and they always use that pronunciation of "a" in front of scared. I remember hearing that pronunciation from Joe Peschi in My Cousin Vinny. My husband's theory on this is that it is a pronunciation that would be natural for native speakers of Italian who are saying that word in English. Native speakers of Italian might put that extra "a" sound in the phrase "I'm-a-scared." To their second-generation children, it sounds like "a-scared," so they picked up that sound in their pronunciation of the word. Just a theory, but it makes sense.
As for it being a Southern pronunciation, it may be, but I'm from N.C., and I never heard it pronounced that way until I moved to the Northeast and was around my husband's family and other Italians. I've always just assumed it was an Italian pronunciation.

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