Vienna Sausage

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Diane Boone. I’m calling from Juneau, Alaska.

Hi, Diane. How are you doing?

I’m doing great. I love your show.

Terrific. What’s going on?

Well, we moved from Anchorage, Alaska to North Carolina a number of years ago.

And some of the people that we knew you might call hillbillies, and they were very proud of their dialect, but it was really hard for us Yankees to understand them.

And so one day with this couple of friends of ours, we were out deciding, trying to ask each other what our favorite foods were.

And the man said, well, he, I love them vieners.

And I said, vieners? What’s a viener?

Well, you know, them vieners. And them little vieners.

And I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.

So I said, he said, them viener sausages.

And I said, how do you spell that, Ralph?

And he said, V-I-E-N-N-A.

And I said, Vienna sausages, as if I ever wanted one anyway.

And my question is, is this a common thread, do you think, that runs through the South where Vienna sausages are known as Vieners?

So he means the little sausages in the can kind of thing?

Yeah, he means Viener sausages.

Do they only come in the can?

You can buy them over the counter at the right meat shop, right?

I don’t think so. I don’t think there’s a high call for them.

Although, we went to a Christmas party recently, and I could not believe it. Somebody served Vienna sausages.

Well, yeah, sure, sure.

They’re like you put them out with the crudités, right?

Exactly.

You got the dip and the chips and the celery and the carrots and the Vienna sausages.

The Vienna sausages. You know, poor, poor Vienna. We just mangle that name.

Did you know, Diane, that there’s a Vienna, Georgia?

Oh, no.

Yeah, there’s a Vienna, Georgia, and there’s also a Vienna, Maine, which is right down the road from Madrid, Maine.

Actually, I come from North Carolina hillbilly stock, and my Aunt Maiso used to talk about Viener sausages.

Isn’t that great? I can’t believe it.

Yeah, and it feels very familiar to me because in that same area, western North Carolina, eastern Kentucky, people also talk about playing the Pianer.

I mean, my dad used to go tell me to go practice the piano, and he was making a joke because he knows that the standard pronunciation is piano, but he was imitating the language of his parents.

And I think you’ll find that kind of pronunciation among a lot of older people in particular.

But let’s just lay out the etymological trail here.

When we talk about Vienna sausages, we’re talking about Vienna, the city in Austria, right?

And in Austrian German, then they would spell it W-I-E-N, right?

Right.

And then somebody who is a citizen of W-I-E-N is a, and it is pronounced with a V, even though it’s spelled with a W, right?

Right.

It is a Wiener, right? Which is also where we get the word for Wiener.

So that’s like the full circle. Wonderful.

Maybe that’s what, how does Wienerschnitzel fit in?

That’s right. Wienerschnitzel and Wienerwurst are also related to that.

Yeah, there are a lot of those meat names that go back to the cities where they supposedly originated.

Like think about Bologna, Bologna, Italy, and Frankfurters and hamburgers.

They’re related to those, or at least there’s a heritage there.

So, but your Aunt Mazo and this fellow that Diane was talking to, they share something that’s a regional pronunciation then.

Yeah, Viener sausages.

Hey, Diane, thanks for this stroll down memory lane.

Oh, this was so much fun. Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

All right.

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