I was born in Northern Ohio and lived there until I was 11. Then I moved to Kentucky.

Everyone I know claims I have the ugliest accent ever. Think Chicago Mid Western Accent meets Kentucky drawl.

I say Cray-On, but I say wack, tack and chack.

I should just mime.

Since about 10,000 people have already told you that it's cray-on, I won't tell you that I agree with them. I will just tell you that I am sorry about the Steely Dan Block Party. My dad (who was born in 1952) is a huge Steely Dan fan, and Steely Dan is the bane of my existence. Stay strong!

CRAY-ON....
Then again I'm a fucking mess. Growing up in Ireland for the first eight years of my life means I say things like "I'm going to dress the bed, can you get the sheets out of the press. Then after that I'll do a little hoovering. Would you like me to go up the town for your messages (groceries)".
Then living in Queensland, Australia till I was 21 means I talk like I'm a hurry. Everything is shortened in OZ eg this afternoon= this arvo and I still drop my r's half the time, but now that I've picked up a Cali twang from being here for 9 years I'm all over the shop.

Crayola Cray-ons.
I honestly had to listen to that clip 4 times because I just couldnt believe that you really said crown instead of cray-on.

Now if you could please put up a clip of you saying the words: aluminum, tuesday and saturday.

My mum says 'restaurong'.
My husband says 'spere' and 'spincter' and the most annoying of all 'pom from' instead of 'palm frond'.

No no no. C - R - O - W - N is "crown". C - R - A - Y - O - N is definitely "cray-on". I speak with some authority on this subject as I am Canadian, and Canada is a constitutional monarchy. That means that the Queen is our head of state and as everyone knows, the proper way of speaking is to use the "Queen's English". Your head of state is George Bush. I don't think it's necessary for me to further elaborate on this point.

Sorry Miss Heather, here is Bartleby's (correct) pronunciation of crayon, as a two syllable word: http://www.bartleby.com/61/wavs/13/C0731300.wav

I think that you must concede.

Minnesota weighing in ... CRAY-ON.

2 syllables.

It rhymes with Rayon.

Oh - and it's CRAY-ON. The word has two syllables.

I am a native Texan and I swear I am saying cray-on but am told it sounds like crown. Texans do the same thing with the word 'oil.' My mouth makes this change when it comes out to ohl. It's one long syllable.

And doesn't everyone know that the actual word 'crown' has 2 syllables and 'crayon' only has one?

I grew up around Pittsburgh and we tend to mumble and mash our words up quite a bit. A lot of multisyllabic words become one long syllable. I say cray-on if I think about it but often it comes out as something like cren, cran, or even crane.
After moving a away from the area and then attending college, I became more and more aware of the accent (we call it Pittsburghese).
I still mispronounce (pronounce differently?) a lot of words in the midst of normal conversation when I'm not concentrating on it but if you specifically asked me what the correct pronounciation of the word is, I could probably tell you. I don't mean to be too judgemental, but your insistence on that pronounciation seems like willful ignorance. You could spend the entire afternoon at your local library and never find a dictionary or pronounciation guide that would even come close to validating "crown". That doesn't make it wrong, but try explaining that to Leta's immature classmates.

This is a great discussion btw. Very enlightening.

Grew up in Texas - never heard it called "cran" until my Chicago-bred MIL taught my daughter to call it that. I can't get her to call it a cray-on to save my life. She also refuses to say ya'll or fixin, and insists on prounouncing been like "bean".

How will my child ever survive in Texas if she can't clean her clothers in the "warsher" before she puts them in the chester drawers? She also thinks that a pitcher on the wall is pronounced differently than a pitcher of (sweet) tea. Sheesh. Next thing she will tell me that Mary/merry/marry sound different, along with pin/pen and bury/berry/Barry.

I just noticed the "link" i included in comment 165, was not a "qwaldy" link.

http://www.pittsburghese.com

Ah hopes yinz injoys dat.

Well, I've had an interesting experience with that word, along with other words in the Redneckish English language. My mother grew up in Iowa. My dad grew up in Arkanas. My step mother grew up in various places, including the proper Southern Belle south and Alaska. I was born and rasied in Northern Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains. That creates for an interesting dialect. Now, in Tennessee, people always ask me if I'm from up North. I'm not sure what to take of that...but I degress.
I started my younger years saying "crown". But around 6, my stepmother forced me to say "Cray-on" She also make me say "Nap-Kin" instead of "Nat-kin". And, by the way, praline, is pronounce PRA (like Bra)-lean. (This is an exact quote from my dad). When I got to college in west Tennessee, I was informed that I like to say "Bol-th" for both. And it should be pronounce "Bow (like Hair Bow) -th" Oh...God forbid you say ten and pen instead of Tiiiin and Piiiiiin. Geez whiz. It's impossible to find a dialect with that many influences. OH. To top it all off, my first boyfriend (we know what kind of impression they can leave) was from North Dakota and insisted I say aunt like "aUNT" like Aussie. B/c Aussie is aussie, not assie. (again, exact quote.)
The whole point is to communicate your thought. Who cares who you say it. But please, oh God, please, don't teach your daughter the Tennessee way of saying forward. I had the hardest time understanding what people were saying with that one. It's FOR-WARD, not "ford".
Love you so much dooce!

I am from Florida (not something I am proud of, lol) and I say craaaan. As in, my mouth is too lazy to actually form the two distinct syllables of CRAY and ON (which would be correct), so instead the CRA part just goes on a few extra nanoseconds.

Regardless, here is a shirt elucidating on this topic that you may enjoy :
http://www.noisebot.com/you_say_potato_i_say_fuck_you_t-shirt

Cray-on. Say it with me now: Cray-on.

But seriously? I would hate it if you started pronouncing crayon correctly. Incidentally, my husband teases me about saying "wooder" instead of "water." It's just the way marriage goes when you have two overly verbal people in it.

i'm a new yorker and we say it with two syllables. CRAY-On. i lived in MA for 12 years, and many of the locals pronounce it with one syllable, but it sounds like CRANE. i'm not sure how people here in Mpls say it (since i've only been here 3 months), but i'm sure it ends with a "youbetcha!"

but i have to admit, i've never heard it pronounced the way you say it!

I'd be more afraid of your sister than Jon, who pronounces words like Canadians do, and Canadians pronounce like the English, and the English have correct enunciation.

Do we need to discuss the word AUNT??

It's not ANT!!!!! You step on ANTS you hug your AUNT!

You wouldn't say "Hanted House," you would say "Haunted House!"

It drives me crazy!!!!!

Say it with me now....

Cray-ola makes cray-ons!

I think I just got a spanking. Ouch. I'm going to have to pack up my "crans" go up to my room and think about my mispronunciation.

Imagine that, a typ-o....

I meant to say that we say SCHEDULE as SCEDule....whoops.

CRAY -- own

I'm afraid I agree with Jon on this one. I have never heard crayon pronounced crown and I've lived in many states. I've always heard cray-on or cran.

Northern California girl checking in with CRAY-on, wok, tok, chawk. File me under never having even considered another way.

The one that fascinates me, aside from woof (wolf), is foyer. Is it foy-yay, foy-YER, or FOY-yer?

At least Leta will be considered bilingual, given that her parents speak two completely different languages!

I'm a southerner born and raised (Georgia), and everyone in my family pronounces it cray-on. On the other hand, I've never imagined that you COULD pronounce walk and talk without the L. Someone earlier is right- they're soft, but definitely there.

So is Leta going to think there's two different kinds of coloring implements? The ones she uses with Mama and the ones she uses with Daddy?

(I have heard it pronounced "crown" before, but it was by a Jack Mormon. Sorry.)

You know... I read this post and thought "Everyone KNOWS it's Crayon".

Then I said it.

I say Cran. Shit.

I had to listen to that several times just to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. Wow. Now my father is a yankee (from NYC) and my mother is a southerner (from SC) so I've spent a good bit of time in both areas. NEVER have a heard such a pronunciation. It is truly remarkable and you gets points for that alone. Still - Jon is right. Yankees won the war after all.

Save yourself the trouble and just call them "colors" which is what we did when I was a girl. However, I must say that cray-on is clearly the winning choice.

And now that my daughter just bonked her head on a table, I must depart.

I would say cray-on. The only single syllable pronunciation I've ever heard is the painful CRAN. Yikes! But I have a confession. Being from the South (Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas)...deep in my heart....they're not cray-ons; they're not crowns; they're not crans. They're colors.

Dictionary.com has it as two syllables Cray-on.

Sorry Heather but Jon is right on this one.

Holy Crap that's a funny post!
(and I needed it this morning)

And by the way, when you say, "I asked you if that was your poopie diaper", it's pronounced Assked, not Axed.

And when you say, "That's especially delightful Ragu", it's pronounced esssspecially, not exxpecially.

It's cran if you're from Chicago.

Every time I read the cray-on pronunciation it seems like you should lift your pinkie when you drink your tea.

I got in trouble at my in-laws' when they asked me to "take stuff up" (take food off the stove and put it in bowls on the table) and didn't know what they meant.

I grew up in Australia where it was definitely Cray-on. I too haven't heard the crown version.

I've checked with some colleagues here (London, UK)and they all say it is cray-on too. Sorry Heather. But, don't know if you can believe them, as some cockney londoners say 'fings' instead of things and 'free' instead of 'three'. Now that does my head in.

B x

PS. thank you for brightening up my day

Ain't regional variations fun?

I find myself in agreement with the people who stick up for "colors," too. "Crayon" (which, as I posted above, I say CRAN) is too fancy, reserved for cocktail parties and meetins with the royal family.

My mom, who grew up in like western Illinois, said "warsh," but my first grade teacher told the class during a reading lesson that there is no r in "warsh." Heavily traumatic - my parents showed me the dictionary, which proved the teacher was right, and I ran off to get a pen to correct the dictionary.

Anybody have any opinions on "sofa" vs. "couch" vs. "davenport"?

Heather, when you pronounce "Crayon," it's a two-syllable word, because the "o" sound in "crown" is actually two sounds, kind of like "ah-oou." If you focus, you can feel your lips moving in the middle of the vowel . . . and of course, it's more obvious in Southern pronunciation.

Oooh! I actually considered saying something about "davenports".

My grandma said "davenport" (Chicago), but she was the only one I ever heard say it (maybe some of her neighbors, but I don't know about them). Mom says it was a brand name, but we kids always thought it was hilarious.

It's definitely "couch". Sofa is what you sit on when you lift your pinkie while drinking your tea and later on color with cray-ons.

Smark! has got it right. Now it's your turn, Heather. Remember, Cray-ola makes cray-ons.

A Davenport is a name brand....just like a lot of people call "tissues" Kleenex. (Or like the English say they are Hoovering...when they are vacuuming)

Wait, there's a difference between fool and full?

I think the only way CROWN makes sense is that you are clearly pronouncing it CRAYWN.

My ears are hurting from trying to imagine the "l" in walk, talk and chalk.

sorry, heather, but as above, Crayon comes from the French, both from "to write" {écrire, say: "eh-kreer"} and "chalk" {craie, say: "cray" (but with that rolling "r" the French do)} (think of a crayon as waxy chalk...)
hence, it's a two-syllable word!

but you have the coolest accent!!!

California native weighing in here : It is Cray-on. However I grew up with a mother who is a native of West Virginia so Lawyer is LAWYUR, woman=WOLMIN, and Teasure= TREYZUR. And in high school I was laughed at mercilessly by my french girlfriend's family who pronounced "how have you BEEN" as "how have you BEAN" and mayonaise as mayo-NEZ. whatever...so uppity.

You are a true southern gal with the crown pronunciation.

It's a tomato/tomahto thing.

NO it is NOT. I love ya Heather, but if anyone sounds like a back woods redneck it would be the person pronouncing Crayon as Crown....and the L is silent. w-a-L-k....Seriously...you have to be kidding.

Are you from Memphis? And do you pronounce Memphis with only one M? (Meh-phis) An ex-boyfriend of mine has the same speech patterns you have.

I grew up in Provo, Utah, and I'm a Mormon, and I say CRAY-on. However, I like the way Heather says it much better, so now I am going to say, "crown," and I'm going to make my kids say it like that, too.

Just so you know, my friend kelly used to pronounce it CROWN as a child, and she got sent to speech therapy. Food for thought.

I always thought crown was a messed up Utah pronunciation.

I want to hear how you pronounce walk.

My favorite that I'm guilty of are measure and eggs both using a long "a" sound instead of an "e". Will you maasure me a cup of aagg whites?

Every time you upload a video clip, or an audio clip, or any kind of clip really, I secretly always think, "Yeah, but what we REALLY wanna see is one of these legendary Leta fits we're always hearing so much about!"

I know I'm a bad person. You don't have to tell me.

Heather, your Memphis roots are showing. I was born and raised here (went to high school with your brother) and was always very confused when other kids would ask me to give them the blue crown. But they do it. Almost all of them! I don't know how I escaped, but I say cray-ahn.
You are however, correct in pronouncing the L in walk, talk, and chalk. How the heck can you not say walk differently from wok?

Pronouncing the word Crayon as Crown would be like pronouncing the word Biscuit as Basquiat. It just makes no sense.

And it's cray-on.

I predict you will learn to love Steely Dan. Holy shit. Crown? Really?

An Oregon gal here throwing in her two cents. I don't believe there is one correct way to say "crayon." It's like CaRIBbean and CariBBEAN. Or HARassment and harASSment. Although I will admit that my mother, who spent a number of years living in Texas, says cray-ins. CRAY-INN. When you say it fast it kinda sounds like "cranes." I don't know if it's right, but it's all I have.

I already weighed in on CRAY-on, but it does occur to me that I overlooked the more pressing issue: that of walk, talk, chalk... I mean, the L is there, people, and should be spoken. A "wok" is something I make spicy curry noodles in; a "walk" is what I take afterward so they don't end up amassing on my thighs.

I was born in and still live in Los Angeles County. I say it with two syllables, but it's more like CRAY-in. But my daughter, heaven help her, says CROWN. How is that??? Where did she come from?

CRAY-ONS are for kids who grow up in trailer parks.
CRANS are for kids that grow up in two parent households.

hehe, loving the comment above :) Sorry Heather, but I'm going to have to go with the CRAY-ON camp on this one. Crayyyy onnn. At least, here in the UK that's how most people I know say it...

it's definitely cray-on, but I'm from Michigan (and now living in Texas), so I could just be really confused.

I'll say it however Leta says it.

But until we get a sound clip of that, I'm going to have to stick with my old Midwestern-born-and-bred way of saying it.

Cran.

CRAAAAAAAN.

If, as a child, I would have asked for the "cray-ons," someone would have asked me if I needed a "crown" too, because who exactly did I think I was, the Queen of England?

Too bad I can't hear the sound clip. But I'm already laughing so hard from reading these comments that I might as well stand up and yell, "THIS IS NOT A WORK-RELATED ACTIVITY!"

Carry on!

okay, I speak english (as opposed to American), I'm scottish (which means I know what I'm talking about, obviously) AND I live in France, which gives me the authority to tell you that lovely hubby is right all the way, Beaufort is pronounced bo-for (have been reading your archives).
and if you can't agree that crayon is pronounced cray-on then I suggest you switch to pencils...can't go wrong saying pencils can you?

Why would it be pronounced "crown?" That is like saying poem should be pronounced "pom." You are totally taking out the middle syllable. Oh dooce, if you awesomeness had not already been proven to me, this would be a good enough reason not to like you.

I had to wait to get home to listen on my computer to you saying "crown". I just couldn't figure out how you'd get "crown" out of cray-on. Now that I've heard it...I still don't get it. Guess it's a southern thing!

I also grew up in Utah and drop letters from words, add r's where they don't belong and make one syllable words into two. In my world, pool is pronounced poo-ul, same with schoo-ul and coo-ul. I got corrected once by a friend in NYC and I had no idea how I was saying it wrong. Oh my poor daughter!

Wonder how Leta will say crayon... keep us posted!

I say "CRAN"...so I guess there's something wrong with me?

Then again, I have a Midwestern accent, and we sound just like people on TV...so nanner nanner nanner! :P

First time to comment! Love this site. One of my daily must reads...

I think the dropping of consonants is NOT strictly a Utah thing. I grew up in Jersey and always say "mou-in" (mountain) which dives my Malibu, CA raised BF nuts. But then again he says "bra" (as in yo, bro'). I think that's worse!

And for what's it worth-I'm a 2 syllable cra-yon pronouncer.

Brilliant! 'Crown'?! That's the same as pronouncing 'ham' as 'keifer sutherland'. I know, I'm Enlgish and therefore my forefathers invented your language.

PS Sigur Ros do indeed ROCK. I lost my virginity to them.

How on earth can you read that many comments. You are truly a saint for reading all your comments :)

You know how crazy these yankees get when you start teachin' em' how to pronounce words right. Just smile and nod, and let them think they are right (even tho hearing real yankee's tawlk makes my ears bleed out right). God love em'

Obviously Jon is no fool for marrying a real woman right?! My husband is a Yankee and is much happier now that he is with a Southern woman.

No offense ya'll...

I listened to the voice post three times just because I love giggle-fits so.
Wow. Now I want to hear what Jon sounds like.
I grew up in Mississippi (I live in Kentucky now) and it's amazing how different people from around the US can sound. Fascinating.
It's Cray-on, btw.
I would go back and listen to my voice posts on my blog and see how I sound, but most of them are of me singing and sound horrible (not sure why I torture the three people that read my blog with them as even Dido sounds awful when recorded through a cell phone. sadly, the voice of experience speaks), and I'm not sure which are which, and I don't want to scare myself by listening to myself. Maybe another day.

Now, I say Cray-On but that's just overcompensation for my immediately family that use the dreaded Cran. They also pronounce wash as warsh. It's a hard world.

I'm with you, Heather. It's totally pronounced "crown".

I loved the audio clip. I (the straightest woman on the planet) think your voice is crazy sexy.