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By Claiborne Dillard

How do you pronounce caramel? Aunt? Tournament? Have you ever wondered if you have been mispronouncing a word your entire life? Along with these controversial pronunciations, my first name, Claiborne, also falls into this category, which is why I feel so strongly about the way certain words are pronounced.

The first word that comes to mind is caramel. Some people pronounce it “CAR-muhl,” but as you can obviously see by the way the word is spelled, it should be pronounced as “CARE-a-mel.” Although Southerners tend to say “CAR-muhl,” the way the word is spelled clearly exhibits what the correct pronunciation should be by the number of syllables used. Anna Armstrong (‘23), a fellow Collegiate Match journalist, had a hamster named “CARE-a-mel” and claimed she would “scold anyone who said ‘CAR-muhl.’”

Photo credit: User Nanka-photo on Deposit Photos.

Another tricky word is pecan. I have heard both pronunciations used before, but the American pronunciation is the one I have heard most often. People in the UK, for example, say pecan like “PEE-can,” which is acceptable in only some cases. When saying the word pecan alone, it is tolerable to say “PEE-can.” But, when saying pecan pie or some sort of phrase with the word pecan in it, it should only be said “pih-KAHN.” Hearing someone say, “PEE-can pie,” is incredibly irritating.

Another controversial word is route. This word is defined as “a way that you follow to get from one place to another” by Oxford Dictionary. According to alot.com, most Northerners pronounce this as “ROOT” and Southerners as “ROWT.” Similar to the word caramel, this should be pronounced the way the word is spelled. There is also the word root, so why would you pronounce the word route like “ROOT?” Also, when using it, people may get confused about which word they are using. 

The Week claims most US Northerners and people from Britain tend to say the word aunt exactly the same way as they say the word ant. This baffles me, partly because my family is from the South, but also because I do not think my parent’s sister should be named the same way as an insect. So, I pronounce the word aunt as “ONT.”

Another pronunciation I am quite passionate about is tournament, which can be pronounced as “TORN-a-ment” or “TURN-a-ment.” One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say “TORN-a-ment.” Because I used to play travel lacrosse, the word tournament would often pop up in people’s vocabulary. When talking with someone that says “TORN-a-ment,” I cannot even focus on what the person is saying, but only the way they pronounced tournament.

Photo credit: User jacki-dee on flickr.com.

One of the few people I know who pronounces the word tomato as “toh-MAH-teh” is my dad. He was born into a very Southern family, where this pronunciation was considered normal, and he says, “because that was what I heard growing up, I adopted it into my vocabulary.” Every time he says the word tomato, everyone else in our family jokingly mocks him because we rarely hear the word pronounced this way.

My name is commonly mispronounced, which is why I am so interested in this topic. The word Claiborne seems to trip up many people who do not know me or do not know me well enough for me to correct them. The accurate way to pronounce my name is actually “CLAY-burn.” I have gotten pretty used to people calling me “CLAY-born” or “clay-BORN,” which is understandable because of the way it is spelled, but both pronunciations are wrong. The one pronunciation I cannot stand, and seems to be used more often than not, is “CLAIR-born.” Not only do these people add in a letter that is not there, they also say “born” in the second syllable. If a teacher calls me “CLAIR-born,” it is difficult for me to correct them because I do not want to make them feel bad.

When going to Starbucks, the mobile app saves me embarrassment. Without mobile ordering, the employees must call out the names of customers when their orders are ready. I learned the easiest way to avoid confusion in pronouncing my name is to spell each letter out. The alternative to the elongated process of spelling out my name is using my mom’s name, Blair. The baristas never second-guess me when I use her name.

The pronunciation of these words and other words varies, usually dependent on where people are from. Oftentimes, there are disagreements on how some words are pronounced, and typically there is more than one acceptable way to say them.