You say potato, I say potato …

• Posted in About Books, General musings, On Writing

A while back, I wrote a post about some regional words that I use in my books. Today, I thought I would talk a little about pronunciation.

Just like words, pronunciation varies widely from region to region (not to mention accents). Simple words always seem to trip me up the most. For caramel, do you say car-mel or car-a-mel? I usually say car-mel.

I like The Weather Channel, but my ears perk up every time one of the forecasters talks about the Appalachian Mountains. The forecasters almost always pronounce it as App-uh-lay-chan. But I’ve always heard and said it as App-uh-latch-in.

Another word that I’ve heard pronounced two ways is pecan. I’ve heard it as peh-cahn and pea-can. I usually say peh-cahn. And as long as we’re talking about food, there is bruschetta, which is bru-sket-a to some and bru-sche-tah to others (including me).

One thing that always surprises me is when people mispronounce Estep, my last name. Many folks say it as Es-tep, but I’ve always heard and said it as E-step. That’s how I would say it, no matter how it’s spelled — Estep, Eastep, Estepp, Eastepp, etc.

In the end, I guess it’s just like regional words — you say them the way you hear them growing up.

What about you guys? What words have you heard pronounced different ways?

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18 Responses to “You say potato, I say potato …”

  1. tina says:

    One that gets me is the Aaron/Erin argument. To me, they are the same. To others, they are completely different. Same with cherry and marry. They rhyme, right? Well, not to everyone! It’s fascinating, the English language! (On the same topic, it seems I have been pronouncing your last name correctly. Go me!)

    Now, on to the soda/pop debate. Or the more vital Mayo or miracle whip debate. ( I would like to think as a southern girl, Gin knows miracle whip is evil and Mayo is pure)

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      Interesting. I hadn’t thought of those.

      Oh, yes. Soda vs. pop is another one. And then some folks combine them and say “soda pop” when talking about soda/pop. LOL.

  2. Alaina says:

    apparently the sign of an accent here is at all…. i guess ‘natives’ to sask say it as one word (atall)… but if you are from elsewhere its said as two..

  3. Louise says:

    I’m a Brit, living in Cali, married to a guy from PA. Yeah, there are some pronunciations that drive me a little nuts or confuse the heck out of me. And go me, I pronounced your name right, but I have friends called Eastep. 🙂

    Route. Root/rowt
    Measure. Meh-zhur/may-zhur

    I say carmel now, but used to say caramel in the UK. Of course I’ve lost all my British pronunciations after almost 20 years here. Got pretty frustrated with no one knowing what I was talking about when I said war-ter for water. 🙂

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      Route/root is another good example. I know I’ve said that one different ways myself, especially if we’re talking about roads, like “state route” (rout) vs. “the route I take” (root).

  4. Karen says:

    I grew up in rural Vt, tho I make my home in Mass these days…we pronounce everything weird.

    Worcester = Wih-stah (Ma) or Woo-ster (Vt)
    Leominster = Lemm-in-stah or Lemm-in-ster
    Route = root
    Car (and anything ending in ‘r’) = Caah
    My name, Karen, according to my MIL is Kay-ah-rin (to me its care-en)
    wicked = wick-id (Like that was a wickid root to Wooster.)
    And we ‘Bang U-ees’, do you?

  5. Siobhan says:

    Hi! I’m sure I could think of lots if I sat down and thought about it, but the main one that jumps into my head is ‘maroon’. I live in Queensland, Australia and for some reason everyone in the state pronounces it ma-rone instead of ma-rune. We even get taught it this way in schools. We are the only state in Australia that does this and our State Rugby League team is nicknamed the Maroons.

    …And don’t even get me started on the pronunciations of my name.

  6. Gavin says:

    Here in California there is an easy way to tell if someone is from the northern or southern end of the state; you ask directions involving a freeway. If they’re from the north, they’ll say, “you take 101…” From the south, they’ll say, “you take the 101…”

    BTW, do you precede your freeways with prepositions? (I don’t)

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      Interesting. No, I don’t really do that. I’ll either say “take the interstate,” or I’ll just say the road number. I don’t usually put “the” in front of the number.

  7. Stella (Ex Libris) says:

    Very interesting, thank you Jennifer (also thanks for the correct pronounciation of your name, as I ahven’t seen any live interview with you I mistakenly thought it was pronounced Es-tep, will change that in my mind from now on 🙂

    I say car-a-mel and peh-cahn, but having studied Italian I know that bruschetta should be pronounced bru-sket-ta 🙂

    ps. and we also use the “the” in front of road numbers.

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      It’s strange. It seemed like everyone said my name the correct way when I was younger. Now, everyone seems to say it the wrong way. Or maybe it’s just a regional pronunciation, and I’m saying it the wrong way. LOL.

  8. Darynda says:

    So, yeah, I actually did a search that said “how does Jennifer Estep say her name?” And this blog post popped up. Hahaha! I’ve always said E-Step, but I was worried I was saying it wrong. Glad I wasn’t!

    Okay, off to finish a book. I could be wrong, but trying to figure out how to say your name could be form of procrastinating. But I was actually looking at the RITA finalists. Super congrats, btw!!!!

    ~D~

    • Jennifer Estep says:

      I’m flattered you would look that up. But yeah, it’s just E-step.

      Good luck with your book. And thanks. I appreciate that. Congrats to you too! 😉

  9. Ashlee R. Estep says:

    I’m an Estep! My family has always pronounced it as E-step. I often get Es-step, but more often I’ve been getting Eh-STEP, with the inflection on the last syllable. It’s annoying having it constantly mispronounced, but what can ya do? 🙂

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