Although I’ve lived in New Orleans for over a decade, I am still corrected for mispronouncing certain words. Some pronunciations are waved over, but so-help-you-God if you call our city “New OrlEEns,” mistake a “streetcar” for a “trolley” or pronounce praline “PRAY-leen.”
The latter happened to me just the other day while I was gobbling a pint of New Orleans Ice Cream Co.’s Praline Crunch. My friend Dani gave me the evil eye and enunciated, very clearly, “PRAH-leen, Kim. It’s PRAH-leen.” Oops! Regardless of my bad habits and mispronunciations, PRAH-leen ice cream has always been one of my favorites. My mother also had a thing for PRAH-leens & Cream (though she called it “PRAY-leens & Cream”) and it would be her scoop of choice when we visited the local ice cream parlor.
2 comments
Thanks for the encouragement! And for reading 🙂
Kim, I was born in New Orleans in 1950 and moved to Arabi/Chalmette in first grade then on to Gramercy/ Lutcher in third grade. Beaumont Texas in 7th grade, Rockport TX in 8th grade and at 18 years of age moved to Detroit, MI for two years and Lansing, MI for 33 years. My pronunciation and accent was so screwed up that no one understood me. I was always being corrected no matter where I went,especially from my ex-hubby who was born/raised in Delaware. After almost 35 years in Michigan my speech became mid-westernized!!! I now live in Rockport TX and having lost the old southern drawl, I am still being corrected. Hey, people should get a life and accept that we all look and talk different and that is okay!!! Love New Orleans and hope to get back there soon and check out this new ice cream!!!