SURVEY SAYS: Kentucky Is Divided on How to Say These 15 Words

You say "toe-may-toe," I say "toe-motto." It's a familiar phrase, but it isn't true for me, personally. Yes, the latter is an acceptable pronunciation, but I've never known anyone to use it. That doesn't mean Kentuckians are in 100% agreement on EVERY pronunciation; certainly not. But we're all on the same page regarding tomatoes.

Actually, the Commonwealth isn't aligned with the rest of the world when it comes to certain geographical names. Here's the classic example of a palace in Paris versus a city near Lexington:

vs.

We Kentuckians don't stop there. The town of Robards KY is pronounced (ROBB-urds); the late Oscar-winning actor Jason Robards pronounced it (ROE-bards). In the Lake Barkley area, a little less then 3,000 people live in Cadiz (KAY-deez). However, the word's origins are Spanish and IN Spain, it goes something like this...(kuh-DEEZ).

Not surprisingly, Kentuckians also disagree among THEMSELVES about certain pronunciations. Why, here in Owensboro, I grew up hearing the street name below WITHOUT the second "R." That's right...(FRED-ick-uh). "Ick," indeed. There are those--usually folks who are new to town--who say (FRED-uh-REEK-uh). Then, there's the more common (FRED-rick-uh).

The Harvard Dialect Survey

Harvard University conducted a survey of the dialects of all 50 states. Interviewees were asked to pronounce select words the way THEY always pronounce them; there were no wrong answers. From these results, Harvard assigned percentages to each word. In some cases, Kentuckians are quite divided on how to say certain of them.

For the gallery below, I chose words that had a minimum rate of at least 30% on both sides. Read on...