Crown.
Crayon vs Crown from zoot on Vimeo.
My daughter started a conversation with me last night about the confusing nature of the two homonyms: Crayon and Crown. I pointed out that they are not – in fact – homonyms. That just because some of us say them the same way…that’s not exactly right. I then did what anyone would do and grabbed my phone to start the conversation over again.
This is all I’ve got for today. Because it makes me smile and I’m struggling this week. I’m worn out and binge eating and struggling to keep my spirits up on the anniversary week of Dad’s death. And this video makes me laugh because my kid…as different as she is from me in so many ways…is also JUST LIKE ME in many others. I love the say she tells stories…she has the same conversational narrative I do. And while there are days she makes me crazy with her antics…she also manages to bring smiles to my face when I need them most.
She’s absolutely adorable!!! I had no idea people said those two words the same. I’m not judging though. I’m from West Virginia and believe me, we say many many many words the wrong way. lol LOVE this video! How cute!
My son came home from kindergarten and told me his teacher called crayons “crowns” and I was so confused. Like why the heck would she do that? I had no idea it was a regional accent thing.
For the record though we don’t say cray-on, we say it more like cr-ann, rhymes with bran.
Accents and dialect have always intrigued me, to the point of studying them while attending a dialect coach. To me NikkiZ’s crayon said like crown was more of a Pittsburgh sound with a bama twang. In the southern areas it’s more of cray-in like Bran. I had a dialect coach to get rid of my Jersey accent. I still say werder (water) and youse guys instead of ya’ll. I slowed my speech down a hair, however, when aggravated or over tired, it all comes back up in a flash.
As for the anniversary, I am right there with you. Tomorrow is the 5th year anniversary of losing my Mom, and I thought it would get easier, but not so much. Good thoughts for you during this time.
am bad friend
i’m so sorry that i forgot! can we binge eat, drink or both together?!
I’m from Michigan and a lot of people I know say crayon like “cran”.
1. This is ADORABLE!
2. I love how N says “draw” like a proper southerner.
3. I grew up in N.C. but we say “cray-ohn.”
4. People still make fun of my accent, which I usually just hide. I especially take a lot of crap for the way I saw “ruin.” –> “rue-een” Damn Yankees!
I grew up in Indiana where we’re kind of a weird mix of northern and southern (we have an awful lot of Kentucky transplants…including my SIL’s family) so within the same town we have several pronunciations of the same word. Now my husband? Born and bred New Yorker (which has it’s own hysterical pronunciations, but that’s another story) had never heard some of the “southern” pronunciations EVER.
When my niece was 5 and in kindergarten, we surprised her by picking her up from school and taking her out for the afternoon. She was telling us a story about something that had happened that day and Mr. W was completely confused. He kept looking at me hoping for explanation but I couldn’t answer because I was trying to hold back the laughter (seriously had tears running down my face). And B is in the back seat getting more and more frustrated because the questions he was asking and his responses to her made NO sense.
The story was all about these kids borrowing her “crowns.” He kept asking her “well how many crowns do you have? Why do you need more than one? What color are your crowns?” I only wish she would have said she had an “oinge crown” (orange)
Well, brown “crowns” WOULD work to draw poop Mom. Gosh.
FWIW, here in Missouri we say cray-on like crayfish (aka crawdads). I’ve heard people from the midwest make good broadcasters because we have neutral accents so there ya go.
You don’t do or say anything wrong you’re the best and just perfect to me
This Portland, Ore. girl says cranns for crayons and piller for pillow and nekkid for naked, and Uff Da! when i’m mad, That’s what u get when u have a mommy from Arkansas and a daddy from North Dakota. My poor kids are stuck with e-nun-ci-ated Iowa dialect from daddy and Pacific NW slur from me. We slur on the west coast, did u know that?
hope your week goes okay, Kim. Do something nice in your Dad’s honor, it will make you feel a little better. Even if it’s just smiling at someone or being the better person when someone is rude. I usually have a picnic with cupcakes and all on my Dad’s birthday, that always makes me feel happy, like he’s there with us. Or we go to the zoo, cuz he loved the zoo. ok long comment, sorry!!
That’s so cute! I call them colors but, I have to be different like that lol I guess its more confusing “what color, color do you need” ahhhhhh!!!
My kid had trouble with those same words when she was small. And she’d grown up in Kansas. I’m from Oregon, I’ve always said cray-ohn, with two distinct syllables.
I love her little southern accent!
She is far too big, and I’d like for that to stop.
Your Dad and I had issues with Pin and Pen. He asked for a pen and I brought him a pin. That started all of that conversation for years.
You are both the cutest ever
And it’s not WRONG, just different!
this is ADORABLE!!! i love her little southern accent.
That was so adorable!!
Dooce has mentioned this in the past, and I’ve never understood how the letter combination of ‘c r a y o n’ is pronounced ‘crown’. What letters in crayon give the ‘ow’ sound? Do you also pronounce ‘s p r a y’ as ‘sprow’? Would you carry drinks on a trow? I’ve thought about this many times since she posted it and need a better understanding!
So odd to me… Born and raised in Georgia and Alabama and have only heard it pronounced “crown” recently. I’ve always said “cray-on” and thought everyone else did too. How have I missed this?