Pronouncing “Hammock”: HAM-mick vs. HAM-mock

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lily. I live in Iowa City, Iowa.

Hey, Lily, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

Well, the other day, it was a beautiful day out, and my roommate came home, and she was telling me how she spent her day.

She went hiking with friends, and then she told me that she went out to lay in the hammocks.

And I stopped her, and I was like, okay, wait, the what?

She said the hammocks. And I said, you mean the hammocks? And she was just like, yeah, those things.

And I’d never heard anybody say hammock. And I told her about that. And she was like, I think we’re saying the same thing.

She’s from eastern Iowa here in Iowa. And I’m from northern Illinois. And they’re similar regions.

But I just thought maybe it’s one of those regional things. But I asked around and suddenly everybody saying hammock.

I’ve never heard the same before, but there’s two separate pronunciations of what I call a hammock.

Hammock versus hammock.

Well, one thing I’m hearing right away is that there’s a difference in stress.

Hammock tends to have a stress on the first syllable, where hammock tends to have a stress on the second syllable.

It’s actually really hard to say anything but hammock if you stress the first syllable.

You know, it’s interesting. If you check most major, all major dictionaries, as a matter of fact, in both the U.S. and the U.K., you will find the hammock pronunciation is the only one that they give.

Oh, wow.

Etymology is interesting on this word. I think it comes from a Taino word from the Caribbean.

But etymology doesn’t rule pronunciation. It’s what people say.

What I think is happening here is that the dictionaries have missed a chance to do more fieldwork and find these other pronunciations of this word.

When you Google pronunciations of this word and look for people talking about it, you’ll find that people say they say it a lot of different ways.

I think I counted six different ways that people say they say it.

Now, whether or not they’re accurate, I don’t know.

People tend to self-report their own pronunciations pretty poorly.

So dictionaries, I think, may be behind.

There might be a whole slew of people in the United States and perhaps other English-speaking countries who do say hammock.

Although, when I go to YouTube and I’ve done this, I’ve sampled a hundred different places where people say the word H-A-M-M-O-C-K.

And I know that’s a small sample size, but they all said hammock.

All of them. That is so interesting. Yeah, I don’t know that there are a lot of people who say hammock, but I could see how that last syllable might become a sight pronunciation, where if you never hear it, you pronounce it like you see it.

I think that’s going to be a new thing, and anytime I meet a new person, I’m going to ask them how they say it.

Right. We hereby deputize you as an Away With Words field worker. Here is your badge. Here’s your certificate. That’s right.

Your responsibilities are to record their pronunciation and their location.

All right?

I will.

Thank you so much for your time, you guys.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

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