Posted on 12/20/2017 1:07:03 PM PST by Red Badger
See this nut? We’ve posted about how pecans are grown, their nutritional benefits and our favorite pecan recipes, but we’ve never really discussed a popular topic of debate: Are they pee-KAHNs, pee-CANs, PEE-cans, pick-AHNs or some other pronunciation? How do YOU say pecan?
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Turns out, it depends on where you’re from. Joshua Katz, a doctoral student studying statistics at NC State University, recently created interactive dialect maps using data from Bert Vaux at the University of Cambridge. For example, check out the map showing how people pronounce “pecan”:
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It shows that pee-KAHN is dominant nationwide, but in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi, pick-AHN reigns supreme. PEE-can is popular on the East Coast and in New England, while folks from Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula go with PEE-kahn.
The linguistics department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee just also shared a pecan pronunciation map that gives another option – where people may say pee-KAHN by itself, but then say PEE-can when using a compound word, like pecan pie.
We found this research fascinating, so we’ve compiled a few of these dialect maps related to food. We had no idea that some people never refer to coleslaw as simply “slaw,” if other people also use “caramel” and “carmel” interchangeably, or if there really is a difference between frosting and icing. We did, however, know that The Great Soda/Pop/Coke/Soft Drink Debate will never be resolved.
Take a look at these maps, and learn if you pronounce mayonnaise like the masses, which syllable gets the emphasis in Thanksgiving, or if you’re the odd one out who says something not even provided as an option. Then, leave us a comment to let us know how you say pecan. (For the record, my parents are from Texas and Oklahoma, so I stand firmly with pick-AHN.)
And “sure” is pronounced “shu-ah”.
How about ‘aunt’ and ‘bath’?
Doesn’t matter. It’s pronounced “Pea-can”
Everybody else is wrong. I’m from Georgia, where we grow the best in the Multi-verse, so, we know.
There are people from Texas that would argue with you about that.................
What is it with those people? It is “PEA kahn”.
Yes we Can!
Say Pee Can!.................
Have always call it pick-AHN.
What difference does it make?
I’ve been picking pecans for a solid month now... first year they’ve been both ~affordable and good-quality in a while. Sprouts, if you have them, has nice fat ones for $3.99/lb. One thing I haven’t seen sold in the stores for a....decade? are the huge, long papershells.
If you have the small, self-sowing natives whose nuts are
smaller than 1”, smashing them is one of the most nutritious things your chickens can snack on.
was the Stucky’s pecan logs. I have no idea if they are still in business but haven’t seen one in many years.
I’m from South Louisiana and my wife is from South Carolina. This subject has been the source of many a discussion and disagreement for 37 years of marriage. From a pup I remember the fall and picking up, cracking and eating puh-kahns. She says Pee cans and I always think of a coffee can in a boat that was used to discretely relieve myself. It never helps when I tell her that how we say it in the DEEP south.
One picks up PEE-cans and eats Pee-Kahn pie.
pick-AHNs in Louisiana, cher
Theyre trying to be politically correct and not offend anyone. That Wisconsin area is PEA-con, like as in a small green leguminous criminal. That “kahn” sound, that fake proper Queens Englishy sound that you hear some places back East isnt present in our speech at all. I used to hear PEEK-on but that seems to have died out with the old farmers for the most part.
My grandad kept a Folgers coffee can next to the bed to pee in. I’ll never forget the smell of stale piss and cigarette butts.
How is Caribbean pronounced? Well, if Im going on a cruise ship or talking about aquatic wildlife, then thats something like care-rih-BE-an, the islands, those are ca-RIH-be-uhn.
  I'm a pine-cone. Male Pee-Can (in Amsterdam)  Female Pee-Can |
I say puhCAHN.
But, they would be mistaken. :D
Actually ALL properly grown and harvested Pea-cans are great!
I was born in Alabama. My relatives and I all say puh-KAHN. I have lived in Texas for 48 years. Everybody I know here likewise says puh-KAHN.
Yup, me, too. Spent 32 years in Texas, and I never heard anything except “puh-kahn”. I have heard some hilarious version of pecan, however. But, all in all, there is nothing like a pecan pie!! Pretty damned good baked with light coating of butter and salt, too. Geez, now I’m going to have to order some!!
How do you pronounce the `a’ in taco?
Like the `a’ in bad, or the `a’ in Pa?
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