Pronunciation of “Oil”

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name’s Emma, and I’m calling from Texas.

Welcome, Emma.

What can we do for you, Emma?

Well, I had a question because me and my dad argue all the time about, because I say ol, and he says like oil or something.

Yeah, and so he always gets mad at me, and so we were wondering, like, is there a correct term or like, you know.

All right, two things.

Spell that word for me, and can you say it in a sentence?

Okay, so like O-I-L.

So like, I need to change my oil.

I need to change my oil.

What about when you want to make water, you put it in a pan, you put it on the stove, you turn it on high, what are you trying to do with that water?

Make it bowl.

You say bowl?

Bowl?

Yes, bowl.

Okay, and the long, very thin, micro-thin sheet of metal that we have in the kitchen that we wrap leftovers in.

It’s made out of aluminum.

It’s aluminum.

Full.

Okay.

And that thing in the bathroom that starts with a T?

Toilet.

Toilet, okay.

Okay.

All right.

These are all, we’re just trying to get and see if this phonetic thing that’s happening with you is consistent, and it looks like it is.

And so your father, I love the way you describe that.

He says oil or whatever.

And where is he from?

He’s from Louisiana, actually.

Okay.

And you’re completely Texan.

Yeah.

That was kind of a question, but I’m just, based on your pronunciations, I’m saying you’re probably completely Texan.

And so your argument is that you don’t sound like your father.

Yeah, no, I don’t.

Why does he expect that?

I don’t know.

Do you agree with him on everything else?

Almost.

Oh, really? Okay.

What I’m getting at here is people tend to sound more like their peer group than they do their parents, particularly when it comes to the sounds of words, not necessarily the vocabulary or the sum of that.

So the way that you say the words, the phonemes, the phonetics in there, you’re going to sound like your friends, the people you went to school with, the people that you hang out with, far more than you are going to sound like your parents.

And your father’s expectation that you should sound like him is a fair one.

I get that.

We want our children to be like us because we think of ourselves as awesome.

But it’s just not the way that language works.

So you sound more like some people in Texas than you do like your father who’s from Louisiana.

And that’s just the way it is.

Because that vowel pronunciation is very common through parts of the American South.

And as a matter of fact, if you look up the word oil in a dialect dictionary, there’s one dialect dictionary that has eight different pronunciations of the word oil, O-I-L.

And they’re all kind of dependent on where you are, what part of American culture you grew up with.

So I just would like to encourage you to tell your father that you’ve got seven other people he needs to meet who don’t say oil like he does either.

So what are you going to do and go back and tell your dad?

I’m going to say, in your face.

That’ll be nice.

That’ll go over well.

He always tells me to cite my sources.

I’ll be like, okay, my sources is your favorite talk show.

Here we go.

Here we go.

I’m going to give you a book that he can look up, although maybe it’s in the library.

It’s called The Linguistic Atlas of Gulf States.

Abbreviated as LAGS, The Linguistic Atlas of Gulf States.

That’s the book I was referring to that has eight different recorded pronunciations across the Gulf region for the word oil.

Okay.

And I’m not just talking one person said it.

I’m saying they’ve got data.

Yeah, cool, because he’s a very statistical person.

Well, it sounds like our kind of guy, even if he’s wrong this once.

And you’re our kind of gal, Anna.

We appreciate your calling.

Okay, thank you.

All right, take care.

I’ll call again sometime, all right?

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Well, we’d love to hear your linguistic questions, so call us, 877-929-9673, or send it to us in email. The address is words@waywordradio.org.