CREEK. Do you say crick or creak?

[mom2scouts]

Long e.

[poppy]

Are you talking about crick or the TV accent?

I am from the rural west, and the closest TV accent I sound like is John Wayne. It's kind of hard to place clearly.

I mean crick. My parents are WV and have a distinct accept but I don't hear it on tv. They say crick and warsh and redd up (for clean up).

[eternalsummer]

mom-ninja, how do you teach your children to pronounce wind?  Or wound?

[cjzimmer1]

Creek would be pronounced creak but crick is a completely different word referring to a smaller amount of water than a creek  So I use both words because they are two different words with two different meanings.  I've never assumed that people who said crick who using a different pronounciation of creak, I also took it as a different word.

[Laura Corin]

Long e.

 

I'm from southern New England, near the Thames River (which gets a long a).  :)

 

Not a short 'e' like 'tems'?

[gardenmom5]

Not in most parts of the U.S.

 

ETA: Here's a map. 

 

I've always loved the test that goes along with that map, trying to figure out where I'm from..... the closest was 1000 miles.

 

I mean crick. My parents are WV and have a distinct accept but I don't hear it on tv. They say crick and warsh and redd up (for clean up).

my grandmother (rural nw mo.) said warsh.  (like wore-sh)  warsh the dishes.  worshington state  .. uh, grandma - there isn't an "r".  . . .

 

the first time I ever heard "redd"  for cleaning up, was some program (might have been quantum leap - 80s) right after an earthquake - and the very proper old fashioned woman says "I'm going to go redd the kitchen".   hmm  wonder what the etiology is . . .

 

[J-rap]

I say creek.  I've never known someone in real life who says crick.

[Word Nerd]

I mean crick. My parents are WV and have a distinct accept but I don't hear it on tv. They say crick and warsh and redd up (for clean up).

 

My grandparents (both lifelong Kansans) said warsh, as do some others I've heard over the years. A few relatives even added an L to the end of some words ending in -a or -aw (like draw—"I'm going to drawl a picture") for some reason.

[Bluegoat]

People here say creak.  Eastern Canada, accent is close to New England.  Rural and urban don't seem to differ in this.

[Reefgazer]

I say crick.  Both pronunciations are correct, and yes, it's regional.

[Reefgazer]

Yup, I was raised in upstate NY (north of Albany) and everyone I know from there says crick.

Creak. New York. However, I know people from upstate NY who say crick. Two Es, long sound.
A crick is what you get in your neck when you sleep funny.

 

[Bluegoat]

On the subject of using local places, my mother noticed about a decade ago that "all of a sudden" people on TV were saying Appalachia with the a in hat rather than the a in hate. I've been assured this is the local pronunciation, so it makes sense, but what she couldn't figure out is how the heck all the people on TV decided to go with local pronunciation simultaneously like that!

 

I think there was a general change in policy in a lot of media style guides at that time to switch to local pronuncuiation as a matter of course.

 

So you see Peking and a little later Bombay go out of use, for example.

 

I think it can be a little silly in many instances, to be honest, as it's never very consistent - we still say "Paris" or "Moscow" and many others in an Anglicized form, and often the reason the form is different in the first place is just because English speakers didn't get it quite right or found it difficult. 

[creekland]

I've always loved the test that goes along with that map, trying to figure out where I'm from..... the closest was 1000 miles.

 

Middle son had an awesome linguistics prof in college who could place the growing up location of everyone in his class - even foreign students - except middle son himself.

 

With a northern NY (practically Canada) mom, a southern (VA/NC) dad, his first words learned in FL, then a speech teacher in his youth plus friends from southern PA, and all of our travels, he was mystified.  He knew US... but was uncertain about the rest.   :lol:   We add a bit into our personal language I suppose, but don't adopt many local customs enough to identify us.

[FaithManor]

Creeeeeeeek.

 

But my dad always said crick. I think that comes from his own parents who were raised in Missouri and Kansas. Most of the local Michiganders do not use crick.

[Emba]

My dad grew up in Ohio.  He says "crick".

I grew up in Texas.  I say "creak" (as do all right-thinking people :tongue_smilie: )

[73349]

On 3/17/2017 at 2:31 PM, Laura Corin said:

Not a short 'e' like 'tems'?

 

Right, th as in thin and then aims. I think I was a teenager before I heard the pronunciation of the rhymes-with-stems river in England.

ETA: Fun article

I wonder how many generations went by before the two diverged. (English people moved into that part of Connecticut in the 1640s.)

Edited January 26, 2022 by Carolina Wren

[Laura Corin]

I think there was a general change in policy in a lot of media style guides at that time to switch to local pronuncuiation as a matter of course.

 

So you see Peking and a little later Bombay go out of use, for example.

 

I think it can be a little silly in many instances, to be honest, as it's never very consistent - we still say "Paris" or "Moscow" and many others in an Anglicized form, and often the reason the form is different in the first place is just because English speakers didn't get it quite right or found it difficult. 

 

And sometimes the 'correct' new pronunciation is wrong.  I don't require announcers to use the correct tones for Beijing, but the consonants are not difficult to approximate, and in the UK they are often wrong.  It should be (roughly) bay-jing (like jinx but without the 'x').  In the UK, the announcers often use a soft 'j', as in the 's' in treasure, or the 'j' in the French word 'joie'.

Edited March 17, 2017 by Laura Corin

[TravelingChris]

It is cr eek   meaning a long e.  I grew up in Northern VA and have lived in CA both northern and southern, OH, NM, FL and now AL.  Everyone said creek.  The only cricks I have heard were in some shows where the people were rural and spoke a dialect.

[Tanaqui]

Just a few things that some people seem to be unclear on:

 

1. Speech is primary. We do not learn to speak by looking at letters on a page. First we learn to speak, then we match letters to words. In English, we rarely update our orthography, which means some spellings are not up-to-date with their pronunciations. If a large speech community says "crick", that doesn't mean their pronunciation is wrong, that means the orthography doesn't match... no more than "one" does! Native speakers with no disabilities do not speak their own language "incorrectly" (barring minor disfluencies).

 

2. Everybody speaks a dialect.

 

And sometimes the 'correct' new pronunciation is wrong.  I don't require announcers to use the correct tones for Beijing, but the consonants are not difficult to approximate, and in the UK they are often wrong.  It should be (roughly) bay-jing (like jinx but without the 'x').  In the UK, the announcers often use a soft 'j', as in the 's' in treasure, or the 'j' in the French word 'joie'.

 

Well, English speakers do have a strange habit of trying to say all foreign words as though they're French... but we don't use the local pronunciation. Why is it "wrong" for us to say Beijing in the way we usually do... but not wrong to say Paris with an /s/ at the end?

[73349]

 

 

Well, English speakers do have a strange habit of trying to say all foreign words as though they're French... but we don't use the local pronunciation. Why is it "wrong" for us to say Beijing in the way we usually do... but not wrong to say Paris with an /s/ at the end?

 

I think it is wrong the way we pronounce Paris. And Cologne (Why are English speakers using the French spelling for a German city??), and Moscow (better spelled Moskva to help with that), and more. (The H in Honduras should be silent, right?)

 

I think it's as impolite as not making an effort to pronounce a person's name correctly, and spell it correctly, to the extent we have the same sounds/letters available to us. It would be nice to see news outlets, style guides, etc. with an updated consensus for more accurate spellings and pronunciations.

[athomeontheprairie]

This. I'm rural Kansas. My neighbors have a creek- it consistently has moving water (closer to a large water source). We have a crick, when it rains there is water there. No rain: stagnant water or dry beds.

I've been thinking about this for awhile. Can I amend, or explain, my previous answer? Thanks

 

In the written word I would NEVER say 'crick'. Never. It would always be read as 'creek'. In writing I would never write 'crick', I would always use 'creek'.

The spoken word 'crick' has a different connotation than 'creek'. Someone up thread mentioned a generational component. I think that's true. While I'm young and use the word, the land is family owned. My neighbors are all my grandfather's generation. Anyone that is our age-they live on homesteads going back generations. The vocal distinction is important, because of how much water, if any, is available for the animals on the land. Those things aren't super important in a book.

 

Both. Where I grew up, the two pronunciations designate two different sizes of waterways. A crick is smaller than a creek.

These are out of order. Your post is the one I'm agreeing to above. But, here's another thought.... A waterway here is different from a 'crick' it is a man-made portion of a field to funnel rainwater off the crops and into the creek. It usually moves with the natural land, but IS man-made. And often runs between two fields.

.The term waterway would never refer to a creek, stream, brook or river.

[That70'sLisa]

This thread is great!

 

We say "creak" here in Connecticut, but are much more likely to say stream.

 

I've been laughed at for mispronouncing the nearby town of Berlin, and I pronounce "been" with a short e. I've never heard it pronounced with a long e, although I have heard it pronounced "bin".

 

I remember conversations with folks from other regions.

 

We'd practice rewording a scenario like this into local words:

 

"We put on our sneakers to run out to the grinder shop for lunch. I ordered a soda and an ice cream with sprinkles. Tonight, Mom's making a casserole for dinner."

 

 

ETA: My mid-western friend's reword: "We put on our tennis shoes to run out to the sub shop for lunch. I ordered a pop and an ice cream with shots. Tonight, mom is making a hot-dish for dinner.

 

My Alabama pal: We put on our tennis shoes to run out for po' boys. I ordered a Coke (an orange one) and an ice cream with jimmies."

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2017 by LisLisaKG75

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

I've been laughed at for mispronouncing the nearby town of Berlin, and I pronounce "been" with a short e. I've never heard it pronounced with a long e, although I have heard it pronounced "bin".

 

I

 

My Alabama pal: We put on our tennis shoes to run out for po' boys. I ordered a Coke (an orange one) and an ice cream with jimmies."

 

When I lived in south Georgia I was corrected for pronouncing Albany like the New York capital. In Georgia it's AlBENy. 

 

Also, we called them jimmies in NJ. Everyone I know from the south, including Alabama, calls them sprinkles. 

[Laura Corin]

 

 

 

Well, English speakers do have a strange habit of trying to say all foreign words as though they're French... but we don't use the local pronunciation. Why is it "wrong" for us to say Beijing in the way we usually do... but not wrong to say Paris with an /s/ at the end?

 

I suppose the reason it struck me was that 'Paris' is traditional, whereas the first time most Brits ever heard the word 'Beijing' it was mispronounced on the BBC.  As it was a reboot, and most people in the UK were unfamiliar with the word (there was no 'usual way'), then why not start from a correct pronunciation?

 

ETA: the 'usual way' was Peking or (older) Peiping.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Laura Corin

[That70'sLisa]

When I lived in south Georgia I was corrected for pronouncing Albany like the New York capital. In Georgia it's AlBENy. 

 

Also, we called them jimmies in NJ. Everyone I know from the south, including Alabama, calls them sprinkles. 

 

Oops! I must have mixed up my friends! :-)

Thanks for the fix!

 

[katilac]

A 'creak' is a nice big creek with flowing water - it's pretty and you might go wading in it. A 'crick' is a smaller, slower flowing creek that you wouldn't wade in. 

 

Edited to add: deep south, suburb of a top 50 populated city. Definitely not rural. 

Edited March 18, 2017 by katilac

[gardenmom5]

i've watched some things with real texans - and I've noticed the dropping of the "L".  especially in some words.

 

e.g. old = ode

 

is this common?   this was someone from the dfw area.   I thought it might have been her, but then I heard someone else pronounce it the same way.

[Bluegoat]

I think it is wrong the way we pronounce Paris. And Cologne (Why are English speakers using the French spelling for a German city??), and Moscow (better spelled Moskva to help with that), and more. (The H in Honduras should be silent, right?)

 

I think it's as impolite as not making an effort to pronounce a person's name correctly, and spell it correctly, to the extent we have the same sounds/letters available to us. It would be nice to see news outlets, style guides, etc. with an updated consensus for more accurate spellings and pronunciations.

 

I would say that the reason we say them in an Anglophonw way is because we are Anglophone.

 

In the same way, I expect that people speaking other languages use their own pronunciation, or even a different name if they like, for place names that are English.  We have two offiicial languages here, many place names have different sounds depending on which one you speak.  My own province's name is Latin, if you are English, but the French have it translated into French, not Latin at all.

 

The idea that I could manage to do a good job at replicating the proper sounds for place names in every language they happen to be in seems a little daunting.  I'm always going to sound like an English speaker to some extent, even if they are names in languages that I have heard spoken.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Bluegoat

[MistyMountain]

I say creek but I do know people who say crick.

[Lady Florida.]

I would say that the reason we say them in an Anglophonw way is because we are Anglophone.

 

In the same way, I expect that people speaking other languages use their own pronunciation, or even a different name if they like, for place names that are English.  We have two offiicial languages here, many place names have different sounds depending on which one you speak.  My own province's name is Latin, if you are English, but the French have it translated into French, not Latin at all.

 

The idea that I could manage to do a good job at replicating the proper sounds for place names in every language they happen to be in seems a little daunting.  I'm always going to sound like an English speaker to some extent, even if they are names in languages that I have heard spoken.

 

:iagree: There is such a thing as trying too hard and sounding ridiculous. Like this old SNL skit that came to mind when I read your post (because I'm old enough to remember oh so many old SNL skits  :lol: )

 

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/enchilada/n9970?snl=1

Edited March 18, 2017 by Lady Florida.

[gaillardia]

Creek, Virginia/Maryland.

 

Crick is something I get in my neck.

[kbutton]

The dictionary says either pronunciation is fine.    Kind of like the crayfish / crawfish you often find in..... creeks!

 

This is interesting everyone, thanks!

 

I grew up with people using both creek and crick, but stopped when I moved here so that I wouldn't get laughed at (grew up in north central PA). I am not sure I could completely pick up local language living just anywhere even though I think that local custom should hold sway. I cannot make myself put an "L" sound in the words idea or ideas (partly because ideals and ideals are words in their own right that mean something different), but some people here do. In the state just to the south of where I currently live (that frequently gets mocked), there are regional accents so far from standard English that they sound like speech impediments, and I cannot understand them (literally not a single word--but supposedly it is English!). I don't quite know what to make of that--I would think that people who speak that way would feel marginalized very badly in our media age. :-( 

 

Anyway, I am glad creek and crick are both correct because I think regionalisms and colloquialisms are cool, and it's one of the few frank mispronunciations people use as standard pronunciation where I am from (but they have a lot of regionalisms that are simply different terms, like "dippy eggs," and it's fun to hear someone use a term and be able to guess their approximate region of the state).

 

I say creek, although I know the older generation makes a distinction between a crick and a creek. I am from KY. 

 

As for locations and names of towns, I think deference to pronunciation should be given to the locals. Just because Versailles is pronounced differently in France does not mean that the local pronunciation of a place named Versailles somewhere else is wrong. 

 

Some places are inconsistent even about words from the same foreign language. In the part of PA I grew up in, people will pronounce Duquesne in a French way (I assume someone fluent in French would still say it better), but DuBois is pronounced doo-boys, like you are asking "Do boys ______?"

 

PA has many regionalisms and accents from one end of the state to another, and it's one of my favorite things about going home. My cousins grew up not that far from us, and they used different regionalisms from us and had a stronger accent. A third family of cousins (also from PA but from near a big city) were hopelessly lost about the creek issue. They would try to add "River" to the name of every creek. They couldn't understand that Creek was the official name, lol! I assume they didn't have creek as part of the local names. River would most definitely imply a much bigger body of water than most of the running water where I am from! 

[8Arrows4theLord]

I say "creak" , my husband says "crick" ! :laugh: