Pronouncing “Museum”

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Taryn. I use they them pronouns and I’m calling from Washington, D.C.

Hi, Taryn.

Welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

So I have one of those classic, I didn’t realize I was saying this weirdly until I moved into another place questions. I am originally from a small town in southeastern Massachusetts. And I moved down to D.C. recently where we have all the, you know, Smithsonian’s and all of that. And all of my friends have been giving me a really hard time about the way that I say the word museum. So I’m wondering if you guys have a rebuttal for me of some variety on maybe why I might say museum the way that I say museum.

And how do they want you to say it?

They want me to say museum, really enunciating that E-U-M. I definitely remember being a kid and not understanding how to spell the word museum and getting stuck on that all the time, because in my head it sounds like Z-A-M, but that’s not how it’s quote-unquote supposed to be pronounced.

So for you, the second syllable rhymes with game?

It’s more like Shazam, maybe.

Oh, so it’s more like gam or ham or p-m.

Okay.

Okay, because what I’m hearing here is like a long A vowel. It sounds more like game to me, the vowel in game to me. Music. But if you are doing, if you are trying to do the Pam, lamb, cram vowel, then you would be in line with the way a fair number of people in the Northeast do say that word. Now, it’s not that common, but I have seen enough anecdotal evidence of people in New York, Connecticut, New England, even as far south as Pennsylvania, reporting that they say it is two syllables, not three. They don’t say museum, but they say museum and like that. So to my ear, that’s a little different than what you’re saying. But I think that there’s room to suggest that because your vowels, even though your vowels are a little different, it’s still part and parcel of that same two-syllable pronunciation of the word.

Yeah, I definitely agree that it sounds like it should be two syllables to me. So my rebuttal would be is that you aren’t alone in pronouncing the word differently than most people pronounce it. It doesn’t necessarily make you wrong, but it does make you different. And so that’s your task. Your task, Taryn, is how long can you stand up under the pressure of living in a big museum town like D.C. and constantly find yourself having this battle?

I think I can hold my own.

Okay.

All right.

Bring down the New England vibe.

Yep.

Okay.

Do you have a sense of whether there might be other words that have that, like, S-E-U-M that could be pronounced as just one syllable with a XAM?

There aren’t many anglicized or nativized words that end with S-E-U-M. The only one I can think of is C-O-L-I-S-E-U-M. How would you say that?

The Coliseum.

Coliseum.

All right.

So you would pronounce the N like most people say museum.

Mm—

Okay.

Interesting. You know, there’s another word I want to toss at you, which is idiolect. Idiolect is the language that you yourself speak. And each one of us, no matter who we are or how we grew up, even if we’re a twin or a triplet and grew up our whole lives with close contact, just a handful of people, we each speak just a little differently than anyone else in the world. And it sounds like you have company.

Yeah.

Yeah. So it sounds like I might have some other people speaking that part of my language and maybe my own variations as well.

Yeah, your own linguistic tribe.

That’s awesome.

Well, Taryn, thanks for calling. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Take care.

Take care. Bye-bye.

You too. Bye.

Taryn’s experience with having a word that they say differently isn’t a rare one. We know that you’ve had this too. Call us and tell us about it. We’ll explore it. We’ll figure it out together.

877-929-9673

Or email us.