Cyarn and kyarn are spellings for a Southern and Appalachian pronunciation of carrion, the rotting flesh of a dead animal. Kenny from Barnesville, Georgia, heard his mother use it for roadkill dragged into the yard by a dog and also more broadly for something disgusting. The related adjective charny or carny can describe a foul mess, as in a room that’s become especially nasty. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Kyarn,” “Cyarn,” and “Charn” Are Appalachian Variant Spellings of “Carrion””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Kenny from Barnesville, Georgia.
Hi, Kenny. Welcome to the show. What can we do for you?
Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha.
Hello. How are you?
I’m doing well.
I have a word that I’m really interested in. My mom used this word when I was a child, and I’ve never heard it used otherwise. But the word, as she pronounced it, was kjarn.
Kjarn.
And an example of how she might use it was if our dog would drag a carcass up into the yard, maybe a possum or a rabbit or something that had met its demise on the roadway. She’d tell us to get that dog away from that charn. Or she might say, boys, get the wheelbarrow and haul that charn to the woods and bury it.
I’ve never heard it used otherwise. I’m just curious. It seems the word matches the definition of carrion.
Yep.
But, you know, pronounced completely different. Maybe you could give me some insight into that deviation, if indeed that’s what it is of carrion, whether it’s a regional pronunciation or just anything you could tell me.
You’ve answered your own question. I think we’ll just sort of step back and let you keep talking because that’s exactly it. It’s a regional pronunciation of the word carrion. And you hear it a lot in Appalachia, for sure, charn. And it refers to rotting flesh, roadkill, that kind of thing. And sometimes you hear people say charny, like your room is charny.
Charny.
Charny.
It’s just a real mess. I mean, it gets used as an adjective that way.
I agree. I couldn’t recall specific examples, but I know my mom used it not just for, you know, putrefied flesh, but, you know, if it was something that was just disgusting, you know, it was carny.
Mm—
Exactly. That’s exactly it. And you hear that little tweak in a few other words in Appalachia from time to time, like card for C-A-R-D.
Card.
Card.
Yeah.
Well, that’s interesting. My mother was born in North Georgia and grew up in North Georgia, but her father was from North Carolina. So you do think it comes from that region?
Absolutely.
Absolutely. The South, South Midlands. And it’s often spelled C-Y-A-R-N or K-Y-A-R-N since it’s dialect. It has lots of variants like that.
Right. It’s widespread enough that it’s recorded in most of the dictionaries that make any attempt at all to record Southern speech.
You’ve made my day. I feel like my children have heard me use the word, and they thought it was a made-up word. And, you know, again, the only reference I had to it was something I heard my mom use. So I feel justified in continuing to use the word.
Absolutely. Somebody made it up, but it wasn’t you. You’re in good company.
Kenny, thanks for calling.
Thank you all very much.
Take care now.
All right.
Thanks, Kenny.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
