# How do you pronounce "mayonnaise"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-mayonnaise/783229>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 28, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-mayonnaise/783229 "2017-03-28T16:56:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-mayonnaise/783229/81 "2017-03-30T21:54:44Z")

</div>

> [@WOOKINPANUB](#):
>
> Now I’m intrigued. I swear, the things I’ve learned about language here . . .
> 
> If it’s not the same sound as “cat” and it doesn’t sound like the month of May, how would you describe it? And, is it only for multi syllable words that contain “man” or do you pronounce the actual word “man” in some other way?

First off, I used the wrong word. It’s apparently vowel raising and [tensing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//%C3%A6/_tensing), not narrowing. I got my words mixed up.

Anyways, the sound I’m talking about is somewhere between the a in cat and the e in bet for me. (IPA is unfortunately not that helpful, since it doesn’t acknowledge such a vowel.) I use it for any word that has -am or -an in it. I find this change extremely common in General American, to the point that a lot of people don’t notice it.

The exact vowel does vary, however. That “hillbilly” way I mention above of saying “may-uhn” for “man” is the extreme version of it. The further north you go in the US, the less narrow it seems to become.\*

It’s something I noticed in school choir. We were taught this very open a (as in cat) vowel. And I noticed that it sounds pretty normal for most words, except those with -an or -am.

\*Except in the Great Lakes region, where a in other positions starts raising and tensing. You can read more about it [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Cities_Vowel_Shift).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2017, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-mayonnaise/783229/82 "2017-03-31T10:25:23Z")

</div>

> [@GrumpyBunny](#):
>
> I’m saddened that there aren’t more votes for “Satan’s Ejaculate”.

There would be, except SE is a lot tastier than mayo.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-mayonnaise/783229.md?page=4)