Do You Speak with a Rockford Accent?

You're probably thinking, "I don't have an accent. I'm from Rockford, Illinois, and we don't have accents here."

I used to think the same thing, but it turns out, we couldn't be more wrong. We do have an accent (or dialect) here in Rockford, and as it turns out, so does our state.

How you pronounce some of the following words should help prove the point. Harvard University actually did a study on the accents/dialects of Americans, and here's what they found in Illinois:

• 89.20% of Illinoisans pronounce "Aunt" as "ant." Only 3.65% of us say it like "Awnt."

• 58.12% of Illinoisans pronounce "Been" as "Bin." 35.12% say it like "Ben."

• 59.55% of us pronounce "Caramel" as "Car-ml." 18.95% pronounce it as "Carra-ml." 16.1% use both interchangeably.

• 64.66% of us pronounce "Coupon" as "Coo-pon." 33.43% say it like "Cyoo-pon."

• 53.68% of Illinoisans pronounce "Crayon" as "Cray-ahn." 25.33% say "Cran."

• 88.88% of us pronounce "Creek" with the long e, while 3.31% say "Crick." Another 5.23% use it both ways.

• 82.31% of us pronounce "Lawyer" as "Loyer," while 14.33% say "Law-yer." I'm guessing the same guidelines apply to the the old fence painter, Tom Sawyer.

• 49.29% of Illinoisans pronounce "Mayonnaise" as "May-uh-Naze," but 40.43% of us say "Man-aze." 7.59% use both.

• 65.76% of us use two syllables to pronounce "Poem," while 34.24% use only one syllable.

• 53.93% pronounce "Really" as "Reely," but 25.68% of Illinoisans say "Rilly."

• 38.23% of us pronounce the word "Realtor" as "Reel-tur," but 39.15% say it with three syllables, as in "Reel-Uh-Tur."

Tomorrow in this space, we'll take a look at what we call things here in Rockford, like those long sandwiches full of cold cuts and vegetables, the carbonated drinks we enjoy, and those insects with the glowing tails we see in the summertime.