# How is the name of the Piedmont region in the US pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433 "2011-01-29T18:18:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Solomon_Hill)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/1 "2011-01-29T18:18:52Z")
I’m quite a big fan of early blues music, including [what’s known as the Piedmont Blues style](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_blues), played by people like Blind Willie McTell, Blind Boy Fuller etc. I’ve been wondering recently though how the name Piedmont is actually pronounced in the region itself, is it anything like it’s written? I’m tempted to try and pronounce it like it’s a French word ‘pi-ay mon’ or something, but I’ve really no idea. Does anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/2 "2011-01-29T18:23:45Z")
Pee’d-mont. As in “I just peed” and count of mont-ee christo. My cite is any newscast that features the Peidmont Triad in NC. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/3 "2011-01-29T18:27:00Z")
My cite is that I grew up there, and we pronounce it like **Todderbob** says: Peed-mont. ---
**Author:** ![King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Solomon_Hill)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/4 "2011-01-29T18:30:58Z")
Thanks very much! If I ever meet any blues aficionados I’ll be able to discuss the topic without the fear of sounding like an idiot now. ---
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/5 "2011-01-29T18:31:59Z")
Peed-mahnt (which is the same as the other two are describing, just providing a different way of phonetisizing it) and it’s not a french word, it’s etymology is latin/italian. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/6 "2011-01-29T20:36:43Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#): > > and it’s not a french word, it’s etymology is latin/italian. It’s written _Piemonte_ in Italian, and pronounced as you’d expect for an Italian word. _Piedmont_ is a more French-like spelling, even though according to the [Wikipedia article about the Italian region](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont) it’s actually spelled _Piémont_ in French. (As a French speaker, both _Piémont_ and _Piedmont_ look suitably French to me.) And of course, both French and Italian being close descendants of Latin, the etymology of the word is quite apparent in both its Italian and French forms. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/7 "2011-01-29T20:46:15Z")
Virginian here, in the general vicinity of the fall line (edge of the piedmont). Peed (as in the past tense of “pee”) Mont, as in the first syllable of “Montgomery”. ---
**Author:** ![King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@King\_Solomon\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Solomon_Hill)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/8 "2011-01-29T22:53:41Z")
Thanks guys, that seems to be a pretty definitive set of answers . Looks like I was over thinking it going for the French. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/9 "2011-01-30T00:27:15Z")
This is a word that I learned in grade school, and have almost never heard of since. I guess it is important for the people who live there, but for the people that don’t, it’s exceedingly rare. ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/10 "2011-01-30T17:42:16Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > This is a word that I learned in grade school, and have almost never heard of since. I guess it is important for the people who live there, but for the people that don’t, it’s exceedingly rare. It’s used commonly in the botanical literature when refering to distribution of plants in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/11 "2011-02-01T03:48:36Z")
Piedmont, Arizona was the ET virus’s ground zero in Crichton’s _Andromeda Strain_. I’ve read the book several times and never heard the name spoken aloud, but I always pronounced it peed-mont. ---
**Author:** ![Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Nunzio\_Tavulari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nunzio_Tavulari)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-the-name-of-the-piedmont-region-in-the-us-pronounced/569433/12 "2011-02-01T03:55:27Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > This is a word that I learned in grade school, and have almost never heard of since. I guess it is important for the people who live there, but for the people that don’t, it’s exceedingly rare. If you’re a blues lover it’s as important to be able to pronounce as baroque is to a classical music lover.