Do You Say Carmel or Caramel?

I have a good friend (from Utah) who says "car-muhl" and it drives me batty. My usual response is "I hear it's lovely this time of year!" Carmel is a place in California/ Caramel is a way to describe a color or milk-based candies produced most famously by Kraft Foods.

While we're nit-pickin' - no Canadians can say "bagel" no matter how long they've lived here.

And all my grandparents' siblings say "SANG-gwich" - SANGWICH!!

I'm with you on all counts except the shore. We say the beach whether it's fancy or not. If it's got sand and ocean, it's the beach.

Care a mel (that's how it sounds when I say it.)
I call a soda a soda and out here in WA people say POP. it kills me.
No one here goes to the beach, it's too damn cold, but a lot of people say they are going to the coast.

I call it Carmel. Caramel bugs me. I'm from northern CA. I agree that it must be a regional thing.

I say Carmel and I call it just a cart ;)

I'm originally from Boston. I say "cah-mel" ! Not only does it not have three syllables, it doesn't have an "r" in it.

I say car-a-mel and cart. It's funny how regions differ in pronunciation. I also say syrup as "sear-up" and my husband says "sur-rup" and we go round and round on that!!

CA-RA-MEL!!

I'm from NJ as well ;)

CAR-MEL drives me INSANE.

We have a few roads here, the Powhite (PO-WHITE!!!!) and people say PAW-HEIGHT... wrong!!! Parham... 'PEAR-EM'... not 'par (golf term) ham (pork).

Drives me nuts!

I LOVE this question! LOL. I have to say around my area a LOT of people say Wa.r.sh instead of Wash :)

I'm with ya on all of your pronunciations. I do believe it depends on where your from. It doesn't bother me at all the way things are said with one exception...Pasketti...I can't stand that mix up, it's spaghetti!!!

I have had a few people correct me or tease me with the way I pronounce some things. I don't really care. I am who I am :)

I say caramel - becauae that is the way it is spelled. I'm also from NJ. The carmel thing drives me bonkers too - I can't understand why people ignore the middle a.

We call it Carmel. We say shopping cart. We go to the beach, not the shore and we drink soda, not pop, my kids have P.E. not gym class. Hmmm, I know there must be more I can't think of!

Car-a-mel. Carmel is a pretty coastal town in California where Clint Eastwood lives.

Somewhere on FB in one of those silly apps there are some "tests" you can take to see where your language is centered. I say On-vel-ope. Not in-vel-ope. I say Puh-con instead of pee-can for pecan. I found that my language is more east coast then midwest. And I don't have anyone from anyplace other than Oklahoma for nearly 100 years.

Carmel.
And we cut the grass (not mow the lawn)....and we wear tennies, go to gym, head to the beach, eat hoagies, drink pop, and redd up our messes and jagg people!

Tomayto, tomahto.

Caramel! I used to work at Starbucks and more people call it Carmel than caramel! It always irked me ;-)

I'm from Jersey too but I say Carmel and also call it a cart.
My husband says heecups for hiccups.

It's carmel to me!!! But caramel wouldn't drive me insane. Otherwise, I say everything like you do. Except for the "shore" - my husband is from Delaware and when we visit his family we definitely go to the "beach" (and it ain't fancy!) OK, one that DOES drive me insane - tennis shoes! If they're not specifically made for tennis, they're sneakers. My daughter just started taking tennis lessons, and the instructor suggested I get her proper tennis shoes (instead of the sneakers she was wearing) in order to protect her ankles. So people, don't call them tennis shoes unless, well, they ARE indeed tennis shoes.

This is funny! This reminds me of the time we went to Ohio for thanksgiving when I was a kid and our parents' friends daughter asked us of we wanted some pop. My brother and I looked at each other like her head spun 360.

I'm from NYC and I say car-a-mel. I also say OR-ange not are-ange which is another thing I always got a kick out of.

Normally it has two, believe it or not if I need caramel it has three. I actually pronounce it differently if I am hungry for it, which is a lot. :)

Several years ago Pizza Hut did this stupid commercial about the way St Louis pronounces four. They said we said faur. No one in my life had ever pronounced four in that manner. Come to find out North County or pretty much the poor areas pronounced it faur. It has always made me wonder if the vast majority of the city pronounced it properly how we were stereotyped by some national chain that way....Then again I ponder a lot of strange things. We have highway 44 which they pronounced farty faur, ick!

Also we call our state Missouri unless you are from the boot hill, then it is Missoura. Cracks me up to no end that McCaskill runs commercials in St Louis and KC pronouncing it Missoura. :p

Carmel (city) and Caramel (candy) color.
I guess I do say "carmel corn" fast.

Well I'm also from Jersey but I say car-mull. Don't know why. There are lots of things in English that ar not pronounced the way they are spelled.

Definitely caramel with an a like apple, not an a like car. I also say shopping cart, sneakers, paper bag, and soda. I go to buy a sandwich, not a sub or anything else.
I live in SoCal, so I talk about the beach all the time and I am not thinking of somewhere fancy, just the local beaches. Never the shore (only in Jersey where it is the Jersey shore).

I was born in Boston but have lived in SoCal since I was 5. I held on to just a little bit of my accent and get teased for it all the time. : ) My poor son is conflicted - half the time he says orange with an "o" sound and half the time he copies me and says "ah-range." hehehe

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Definitely caramel with an a like apple, not an a like car. I also say shopping cart, sneakers, paper bag, and soda. I go to buy a sandwich, not a sub or anything else.
I live in SoCal, so I talk about the beach all the time and I am not thinking of somewhere fancy, just the local beaches. Never the shore (only in Jersey where it is the Jersey shore).

I was born in Boston but have lived in SoCal since I was 5. I held on to just a little bit of my accent and get teased for it all the time. : ) My poor son is conflicted - half the time he says orange with an "o" sound and half the time he copies me and says "ah-range." hehehe

Ca-ra-mel or Car-mull

I'm a native Pennsylvanian and it's a dialect. The funny thing is Pennsylvanians in one area actually call things by different names than Pennsylvanians in other areas, but we still understand each other. Here's a what do you call it list:
1. I say, "carmel" and so does everyone I know, except for slightly snobish coworkers. Looked it up and I'm embarrassed to say I'm wrong. Carmel is not only a town in Calif., but also there's Mount Carmel in Israel. Caramel is a candy. Stand corrected, but will always say carmel. Caramel just doesn't feel right in my mouth.
2. We all say, "cart." Shopping cart is just too many words.
3. I say, "sneakers," my dadd and uncles say, "tennis shoes," and my cousins say, "sneaks."
4. Beach is a beach with sand. We just say the place's name. Everyone knows, which restaurant is fancy/high brow.
5. Manhattan is Manhattan and "The City" is NYC.
6. We don't have an "upstate." We have an "up the moutain" and "boondocks." ("Boondocks" means "out in the sticks" means "out in the woods" means " out in the middle of nowhere.")
7. School kids have gym or phys. ed. We use both.
8. What's wrong with "seerup" on pancakes?
9. We put groceries in a bag too.
10. Nooooo, soda's either soda pop, pop, or just plain soda. (Depends on how close you are to Lancaster.
11. A "sub" has an olive on top; otherwise, it's a hoagie.
12. A "cheese steak" is a steak sandwich in a hoagie roll with thin sliced steak, mozzella cheese, fried peppers, and fried onions. "Pizza steak" is when you add pizza sauce to it. Yummmmm :)
13. Yep, Aunt is pronounced "ant."
14. I say, "coopon" and my sister says, "cuepon."
15 I say, "library" and my sister says, "liberry."
16 I say, "chimney" and my nephew says, "chimlee."
17. I say, "outten the light."
18. My family, local yokel neighbors, and I say, "Got-zunt-hieght." not "God bless you."
19. A "local yokel" is someone who has ancestors here and was born here.
20. A "city slicker" is someone from NYC.
21 A "transplant" is someone who moved here from out of state.
22. The "cob is on the corn." (You guessed, German heritage...We say things back wards.)
23. You "water the horses" rather than give them water/fill up thier troff.
24. I say, "pepper, " but one of my friends used to call peppers, "mangos."
25. We say, "ar" not "ou-er."
26. My family says, "creeek" and some coworkers say, "crik."
27. We say, "chicken pie" not "pot pie." To us "pot pie" is cooked on the stove top not in the oven and resembles chicken soup with homemade square noodles, carrots, celery, potatoes, and chicken. Sometimes we use beef.

My husband says carmel and I say car-a-mel. My kids say car-a-mel also.

I guess it's the northern-v-southern thing...he also says wrastle instead of wrestle...that literally drives me batty.

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My husband says carmel and I say car-a-mel. My kids say car-a-mel also.

I guess it's the northern-v-southern thing...he also says wrastle instead of wrestle...that literally drives me batty.

Oohhh, fun!

I say carmel even though I wince and think, "Darn it! Care-a-mel!" I also drink pop, go to the beach - up north, if I'm lucky. I don't think I've ever said sneakers and think it's kind of funny when an extra r gets thrown into words like wash (warsh) which doesn't happen too often around here. I've also had lengthy discussions with my husband on why it's a windshield, not a windscreen.

carmel, sneakers, beach, p.e., suurup, bag, soft drink or soda, sub, ant, like the insect -definitely not ont.

I had to think about it for a minute because I go back and forth on words a lot. My pronunciation is highly influenced by my company. It's unconscious.

So, I might say it both ways but most often I *think* I say carmel.

I say carmel, tennis shoes, the beach (I grew up next to Laguna Beach, CA). I call the grocery store the market and I say soda

It's the 3-syllable car-a-mel that is the delicious yummy ice cream topping. Carmel is the name of a place (Mt. Carmel in Israel, or the town of Carmel in CA).

Okay so I do car-a-mel as well. I wear runners not tennis shoes, I go to the beach (cali girl), Chicago is the city here too! I put surrup on my hotcakes and I use a sack and buggie! (Southern girl too!). In the south the only soda/pop that gets a name other than coke is Dr. Pepper - now that I am in Il it's all Pop (aside from Dr. Pepper). Large sammies are subs - and it's Aunties (not like the insect). It's also A not A (uh) and WASH not Warsh! My kids have P.E. in the gym!

LOL..I ove these regional word discussions!

I usually say Car-mull. But can be caught equally now using that middle syllable! As long as I get some, I will say it anyway you want me to :-)

I might chuckle if someone called the shopping/grocery cart a buggy or trolley! (Harry potter..on the train..."Any treats from the trolley, dears?"..I just can't make it go away in my brain!)

Fun question!!

3 syllables maybe the lady was saying camel...like the animal...referring to the color of the purse?

Definitely ca ra mel. And shopping trolley.