Another pronunciation poll, this time about scones

[strange_complex]

It's confusing being a Midlander sometimes (for those unaware, I grew up in Birmingham).

I personally have the most terrible trouble with long and short 'a's in words like 'bath', 'glass', 'last' and so on, and can often be caught changing from one to the other in the middle of a sentence. Faced one day at a bus-stop in Reading with a car displaying the logo for a driving school called 'Fast Pass', my brain simply went into meltdown, and I had no idea how to read it: 'Faast Paass'? 'Fast Paass'? 'Faast Pass'? Or 'Fast Pass'?

In fact, I am so confused that I sometimes involve words which shouldn't be part of this in the whole muddle. Recently, I received a note at work telling me I had a parcel to collect, and when I went to ask one of the secretaries for it, I found myself asking for my 'passel'.

But I digress from the real issue at stake: scones.

While my sister was staying with me over the weekend, we discovered over the course of lunch on Monday that I pronounce the word with a long 'o' (so that it sounds like 'skoan'), while she pronounces it with a short 'o') (so that is sounds like 'skon'). This surprised me, since we both grew up in the same family and in the same area, but she explained that when she had moved to the South, everyone had laughed at her accent, so she had changed her pronunciation of some words, 'scone' included. This then surprised me even more, because I had always thought of 'skoan' as the southern pronunciation, and 'skon' as the northern.

Perhaps this is to be explained by the fact that her reference to moving 'South' actually meant she had moved to East London, where I can believe 'skon' might be more prevalent. Meanwhile, I, too, have broadly moved South (apart from the bit where I came to Belfast), yet 'skoan' seems to have fitted right in in both Bristol and Oxford. (Or if it hasn't, I haven't cared enough to notice).

In any case, I now want to check up on where each pronunciation is most common with the help of you, gentle readers. I know that both are in use: but where does each prevail? Tell me which bits of Britain you think are busy eating skoans, and which parts are happily munching on skons instead.

[Poll #386998]
Apologies, incidentally, to the good people of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for not providing the option to further subdivide your (our?) regions: I'm only allowed a maximum of 15 options for this type of poll question, it transpires, so you will have to comment if you think different rules apply in different parts of your country. Comments on the typical pronunciation in English-speaking countries are, of course, also welcome.

Comments

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

I'd say 'skon', but that's just because it's the pronunciation my mum uses. And seeing as she always pulls me up for saying 'neether' instead of 'nigh-ther', and others I can't think of at the moment, I use her as my standard of measurement for post pronunciations.

One thing to bear in mind with me, though, is that I spent a long time living in the States. So while I could write you a thesis on the social differences between neether and nigh-ther, or garahge and garridge, I can never remember whether it's or-eg-an-o or ori-gah-no, or Carr-ib-be-an or Carrib-e-an. I do know it's basil, not baysil, but sometimes (posh as I'd like to be) my mouth spews accidental American.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Just out of interest, how do you pronounce "herbs"?

[nwhyte]

As written!

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too. But I'm noticing an increase in the number of young Brits of my acquaintance who are saying "urbs".

'Erbs

[(Anonymous)]

The only the context "the youth" seem to use the American "'erb" in is when talking about Marijuana and the phrase seems to have come through into UK English via Hip Hop and Rap.

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

With an 'h'!

My parents did their best to ensure that, despite an American upbringing, I was still an English child (Enid Blyton and all). And when I do mis-say something in American, I try to correct it immediately.

One of the banes of my existence during adolescence was reading The Picture of Dorian Gray with a class full of Americans, who insisted on calling Dorian's friend Baysil. We had many debates, all of which concluded in me wanting to kill.

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

who insisted on calling Dorian's friend Baysil

*choke*

Oh dear. And people wonder why students turn guns on each other in the US.

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

It's not society, it's pronunciation! I wonder if we could get Michael Moore to do a film on it: Praying for Baysil.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I reckon you should be grateful you got to read this at school at all! These days it would probably be banned (http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/05/28/life.language.reut/), on the grounds of controversial content.

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

Oh, good God!

Luckily I was in international schools while I was over there, which meant that while I had to suffer Americans in my classes, I didn't have to suffer their system of education as a whole. We'd probably have been assigned 'Fluffy Wuffy Learns to Love' instead of Oscar Wilde!

[missfairchild.livejournal.com]

Aaaargh! I can't take much more Merkin lunacy!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

I enjoy deliberately pronouncing this as something like 'Erbs and Spahces' (the spices are a necessary component of the phrase: there is no such thing as just Erbs). To be honest, I'm not sure why I do this, or of whom it might be a pastiche.