Regional Pronunciations of Crayon

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Monica calling from KHSU in Arcata, California.

Well, hello, Monica. How are you doing up there?

How are things in northern, northern, northern California?

Things are very well up here in very northern California.

Okay, growing up on the West Coast, born and raised on the West Coast, I’ve always thought it was funny when people have mentioned a California accent. You know, it’s like, what accent? We don’t have an accent. We just pronounce words the way that they’re supposed to be pronounced, like, you know, actually saying all of the syllables and things like that.

And then somebody laughed at me. I was talking to a friend about drawing, which I’m not very good at, and using crayons. And they were like, wait, using what? I was like, crayons. And they’re like, crayons? I’m like, really? Who pronounces it? Crayons? I mean, I know that’s how it’s spelled, but that seems so weird.

And I talked to a co-worker of mine who grew up in the Midwest, and he’s like, yeah, we pronounce it crayons. And I was like, wow, I actually pronounce something apparently like the Midwest pronunciation. And I just, you know, I was curious about the pronunciation of crayons, which just sounds more awkward that way. C-R-A-Y-O-N, crayon.

Yeah.

What do you say, Martha?

I say crayon.

I say crayon as well. Say it again. Let’s hear it again, Monica, one more time. How do you say it?

Okay, crayon. I mean, I think maybe I just kind of rush through it or something.

There’s something happening here that’s not just you. It’s not laziness or rushing or anything like that. There’s something happening.

No, no. Yeah, there are other people who say it this way. And in fact, it’s one of those words that they’ll use sometimes on a dialect survey to see what your dialect is or see where the variations are.

And in fact, Monica, we can post a link on our website to a dialect survey that was done a few years ago that actually has it mapped out where people in this survey responded with the pronunciation crayon. Now, it’s only 14.13% of the respondents. Most people said crayon or crayon. There were four pronunciations of the word. Crown, apparently, is the pronunciation of the word.

Yeah, have you ever heard anybody say crayon?

I have not.

So crayon, crayon, crayon, and crown. So with these four in a dialect survey and a few other questions, we can narrow you down by your region and probably figure out where you are.

And I’m not surprised. You’re from up there, Northern California, your whole life, right?

Well, I spent a portion of my life in Northern Nevada. But, I mean, primarily, you know, I’ve been here for a large portion, almost half of my life. So I’m primarily a California girl.

Monica, you’re not that weird.

A little bit.

Thank goodness. I’m going to quote you guys on that somewhere. I can see the blurb now. Martha and Grant said I’m not that weird.

That’s right.

Well, thank you. I appreciate knowing that I’m not the only one that says it like that. At least 14% of the population pronounces it like I do.

Monica, let me ask you two more dialect questions just while we have you.

All right.

Let’s see if we can find a little bit more about how you speak. Are you ready to play this?

I am ready.

All right. If you go to McDonald’s and you buy the burger and the fries that are for the kids that come in this special colorful box with the characters on the outside, what is that called?

The Happy Meal.

Okay. And if you eat a lot of food and somebody asks you if you want seconds, you say, no, thanks. I’ve had my?

My fill.

Okay. And when you go to the store and there’s something on sale and you spend very little money and you’re really pleased and you say, well, I got a real deal.

Deal.

Deal.

Okay. And cattle are rounded up and put inside a fenced-in.

Say it again, please.

Corral.

Corral, okay. Two syllables there.

Yeah, you’re pretty much okay. What I was looking for is some people who also say crann also say fill instead of feel, mill instead of meal.

A happy mill.

Yeah, a happy mill. And crawl instead of corral.

So I’m weirder than you thought, but still not quite as weird as I thought I could be.

Exactly. You got it. By Jove.

Monica, thank you so much for giving us a call today.

All right.

Thanks for having me.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye-bye.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673. Let us figure out where you’re from. Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org. We’ll tell you if you’re weird or not.