How many syllables are there in 'caramel' in your accent?

[Laura Corin]

This household is genially divided on the subject.

[Tanaqui]

Three, and where I am I don't ever hear the other pronunciation.

[Guest]

I don't really have an accent but I pronounce caramel the way my grandma and aunt did (east coasters): care - ah - mel.

[Catwoman]

Another vote for three.

 

I have heard it pronounced with two syllables as well, and it doesn't bother me to hear it either way.

 

Mostly I just like eating it. If you want to give me some caramel, you can say it any way you'd like. :)

[HS Mom in NC]

3

 

The only difference I hear in pronunciations around here is in the first syllable.

Most say KAR-a-mul around here.  Sounds like car.

A few say KAIR-a mul. Sounds like care.

[Tap]

I typically use two, but will use 3 if I am feeling flamboyant with my words that day.  

 

I think that 3 syllables sounds more delicious, but for brevity, I typically use 2.   And yes, my brain really does over think things like this.  LOL  

[Laura Corin]

I don't really have an accent but I pronounce caramel the way my grandma and aunt did (east coasters): care - ah - mel.

 

Everyone has an accent: perhaps you speak 'standard American' and I speak 'British Received Pronunciation' but we each have those accents.

[Pawz4me]

Three is standard.  Two if I'm feeling lazy.

 

Years ago two was more the norm in this area, though.

[Greta]

I hear it both ways, but I say it with three. Where I grew up, Oklahoma, if memory serves most people said it with just two.

[kiana]

one syllable ... because I say it "NOM"

 

(more seriously, three)

[HS Mom in NC]

one syllable ... because I say it "NOM"

 

(more seriously, three)

 

Around here it's 3. NOM NOM NOM!

 

[Laura Corin]

Ah - another question: CARE-uh-muhl or CA-ruh-muhl.  This should be me:

 

https://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder/msg/i66uidg16yshzvuh

[Arcadia]

My boys voted for 3 syllables and they pronounce it as CARE-ruh-muhl.   I do not like the taste of caramel unless it is Snickers/Mars ice-cream bar.

[73349]

I pronounce it with two, CARE-ml. But it's almost 1 1/2 and 1/2, like there are apostrophes in there. CAR-mull and CARE-uh-mell are heard around here as well.

 

Pecan is likewise done different ways.

 

I hate words without an established "right" pronunciation and spelling, at least within a region.

[HS Mom in NC]

Everyone has an accent: perhaps you speak 'standard American' and I speak 'British Received Pronunciation' but we each have those accents.

 

Could you convert that to British movies and TV most Americans are familiar with? 

 

Sherlock Holmes played by Cumberbatch

Eliza Doolittle before Henry Higgins

Daisy in Downton Abbey

someone else, maybe a Harry Potter character

[Word Nerd]

It depends on how lazy I am when I say it. Three, usually. I usually hear "caramel corn" pronounced like CAR-ml, no matter who's saying it.

[Eagle]

car-mull. 2

[Tanaqui]

RP... think fancy schmancy Brit-speak, as heard in this youtube video. An explanation of the origin is given here. I googled, so if anybody has a better link, by all means, provide it!

 

Laura is quite correct, of course. Everybody, everybody, everybody has an accent*. In the US it's common for Midwesterners to claim to be accentless, but the truth is that their accent is actually highly distinctive! (And plenty of people who swear up and down that they speak the perfect standard with no nonstandard usage in grammar or vocabulary are shocked to find that something they consider perfectly normal is, in fact, highly regional and nonstandard.)

 

* Except for me. Everybody's English can be precisely judged by how far it diverges from my own personal idiolect which is, of course, the very pinnacle of human speech :P

[edithcrawley]

2 syllables---car--mul, but that is pretty standard around here since there is a nearby city called Carmel, IN, so most people just pronounce the candy the same way.

[Laura Corin]

Could you convert that to British movies and TV most Americans are familiar with?

 

Sherlock Holmes played by Cumberbatch

Eliza Doolittle before Henry Higgins

Daisy in Downton Abbey

someone else, maybe a Harry Potter character

All I meant was that no one's speech is neutral. Benedict Cumberbatch speaks RP - that is standard middle class southern - which is just as much an accent as Eliza Doolittle's Cockney.

[HS Mom in NC]

All I meant was that no one's speech is neutral. Benedict Cumberbatch speaks RP - that is standard middle class southern - which is just as much an accent as Eliza Doolittle's Cockney.

 

Yes, I understand everyone has a distinct accent.  I wanted to know what RP sounded like.

[whitestavern]

Two

[Spy Car]

Depends.

 

If I were speaking of a "carmel apple," it would me two car-mull.

 

If it were, "a delicious candy with a care-ah-mel center", three.

 

Makes no sense, but there you have it :D

 

Bill

[Piper]

2 syllables---car--mul, but that is pretty standard around here since there is a nearby city called Carmel, IN, so most people just pronounce the candy the same way.

 

I'm curious - does the accent go on the first or second syllable when you name that city in IN? Because there's a city in CA that's called Carmel, only it's always pronounced "Car-MEL" as opposed to how I usually hear the name of the candy pronounced: "CAR-mle" (2 syllables).

[Melissa in Australia]

CARE-uh-muhl I think. It is possible that I say the first bit different as in AUS we have 5 different sounds for the letter  A

[ErinE]

Everyone has an accent: perhaps you speak 'standard American' and I speak 'British Received Pronunciation' but we each have those accents.

 

While working out of the UK office, I had an Irish co-worker once tell me the American accent sounds like a news anchor. I couldn't help but think, "Even in London?"

[Laura Corin]

While working out of the UK office, I had an Irish co-worker once tell me the American accent sounds like a news anchor. I couldn't help but think, "Even in London?"

Interesting that they use the phrase 'news anchor' in Ireland, as it's not used here.

[Guest]

California native here. Car-muhl, two syllables and a schwa.

[ErinE]

Interesting that they use the phrase 'news anchor' in Ireland, as it's not used here.

 

I used the term off the top of my head. She probably used another term as it was more than a decade ago. What stuck out to me is the fact she thought the American accent sounded like a newscaster.

[Southern Ivy]

Car-mull - definitely a result of my NW Arkansas/SW Missouri roots. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

3

[HRAAB]

CARE-uh-mel - 3 syllables - is the way I pronounce it.  I'm not sure why other than I like the way it sounds.  It seems most people around me say CAR-mel.  Either way, I'll eat it.

[Ausmumof3]

Car as in carry, rhymes with the first part of parrot, uh, mell.

[BrookValley.]

Depends.

 

If I were speaking of a "carmel apple," it would me two car-mull.

 

If it were, "a delicious candy with a care-ah-mel center", three.

 

Makes no sense, but there you have it :D

 

Bill

 

No, no, it makes perfect sense, and is the one true way! I am not alone!

 

Yes, caramel is three syllables: care-ah-mel. Unless it's a caramel apple, in which case it is car-mull because it's a car-mull app-ull. They have to match, see? 

[Kerileanne99]

Depends.

 

If I were speaking of a "carmel apple," it would me two car-mull.

 

If it were, "a delicious candy with a care-ah-mel center", three.

 

Makes no sense, but there you have it :D

 

Bill

This is us as well:)

Car-Mull corn

Car-Mull Apple

Care-ah-Mel centers

[Ms.Ivy]

This is us as well:)

Car-Mull corn

Car-Mull Apple

Care-ah-Mel centers

 

Yep.  This is how I grew up saying it, too.  Care-ah-mels are candy.  Car-mull is what goes on popcorn or apples.  I thought they were somehow different things until I looked up recipes in my early 20s.  haha

[Violet Crown]

I pronounce it with two, CARE-ml. But it's almost 1 1/2 and 1/2, like there are apostrophes in there. CAR-mull and CARE-uh-mell are heard around here as well.

 

Pecan is likewise done different ways.

 

I hate words without an established "right" pronunciation and spelling, at least within a region.

Yes. Carml. One-and-a-half syllables at best. Car like the car you drive.

 

In my region, a final L after a vowel isn't pronounced with the tongue touching the front of the palate, as with most English speakers; the tongue stays down. So it's easy to shorten such syllables.

[fraidycat]

Other.

 

I say it both ways, depending on context.

 

Care-a-mel or car-mul

[Pam in CT]

Wait.  

 

Who voted for OTHER???!!  Other than 2 or 3, what else is there?

 

Please.Explain.    :lol:

 

 

(3, around here...)

 

 

 

 

ETA: Ah, FraidyCat, we were posting at the same time.  OK.  I can see that.  

 

 

Sorta...

 

 

ETA (2): Et tu, Violet Crown?  Yah, OK, Texas.

[Violet Crown]

Yah, OK, Texas.

Smile when you say that, pardner. :D

[Pam in CT]

:laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh:

[Wabi Sabi]

2 syllables---car--mul, but that is pretty standard around here since there is a nearby city called Carmel, IN, so most people just pronounce the candy the same way.

Yep, I grew up in Indianapolis, so the town of Carmel is the same way I pronounce it. 

[Carrie12345]

Three, and without the r-controlled vowel.  Well, with the vowel, but r has no control over me.

[Pegs]

3 syllables: short vowel a, schwa, short vowel e.

 

I'm Australian and don't have an accent.

[edithcrawley]

I'm curious - does the accent go on the first or second syllable when you name that city in IN? Because there's a city in CA that's called Carmel, only it's always pronounced "Car-MEL" as opposed to how I usually hear the name of the candy pronounced: "CAR-mle" (2 syllables).

Accent goes on the first syllable

[bolt.]

It depends on ( a ) how expensive and/or fantastic the item is, and ( b ) how enthusiastic the person is about it.

 

If it's extra wonderful, it gets an extra syllable. If it's a beige cube in a trick or treat bag, it gets the short form.

 

Example: "Mmmm -- look at that car-a-mel white chocolate brownie with whip cream!" -vs- "I think the cafeteria pudding is car-mel today."

[Cottonwood]

2 - From North Florida.  Funny how the map upthread shows I should be saying it with 3. lol

[athomeontheprairie]

I'm one of very few locally who say it with three. Most people use two.

[chocolatechip]

Car-mull. West Coast.

[Laurie4b]

I pronounce it both ways. I live in a different region than I grew up in and I really don't know which way came first and never really know which one will come out of my mouth. 

 

So I chose "other" in the poll.