Many people have different ways of saying certain words. People may say words based on where they grew up, how they were raised, and the people who surrounded them. Some hate the way people talk if they talk differently than them, and others don’t mind it. I took a survey based on words I commonly hear said differently. Although there are more words than the ones I have come up with that are frequently said different, I had only asked about 13 of them. Of course, there are more ways that people say these words, but I wrote done the ones I most hear said.

Below are the words that I surveyed amongst a group of students at Lincoln-Way East. I am including the word and different pronunciations that are most commonly used. The number next to the word corresponds to the responses from the students that were surveyed.

Soda or pop Soda (8) Pop (4)

Pecan pick-AHN (5) pee-KAHN (3) PEE-can (3)

Capri-sun CAP-ri-sun (2) Cap-REE-sun (11)

Milk Milk (8) Melk (2) Malk (0)

Aunt Ant (7) Ah-nt (6)

Caramel KAR-uh-muhl (1) KAR-muhl (9)

Herbs HER-bs (5) ER-bs (5)

Gyro JEE-row (1) YEE-row (4) GUY-row (1) GEAR-row (2)

Syrup SUR-uhp (7) SEER-uhp (3)

Coupon COO-pon (8) CUE-pon (3)

Mayonnaise MAY-uh-naze (1) MAN-aze (9)

Pajamas puh-JAH-muhs (2) puh-JAM-uhs (6)

Roof R-OO-f (7) Ruff (1)

It was interesting to see how people did not have the same pronunciations to these words. As you can see, some words had a lot more votes than others and there were some who didn’t have any at all. The different manners of speaking could depend on the way they were taught or based on the different dialects of their household. All in all, having the different variations of the way people speak allows us to view the change in perspectives and the diversity in language.