# It's "suth"-ern you imbecile! (pronunciation question) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799 "2011-01-24T16:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [January 24, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/21 "2011-01-24T23:11:39Z")
While there are people talking about hearing the SOUTH-ern pronunciation, I notice no one has actually picked it in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![Heckity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Heckity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heckity)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/22 "2011-01-24T23:34:21Z")
Suth-ren and I’m near Toronto. I have number of Suth-ren friends, one of whom (a tarheel) pronounces Ontario as On-tahr-io. We pronounce it On-tair-io (or something close to that). ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/23 "2011-01-24T23:37:22Z")
I picture “South”-ern as something I’d hear on the BBC; just another jarring, oddball Britishism. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/24 "2011-01-24T23:46:13Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Suth doesn’t rhyme with love? The vowel sound in there isn’t the same to you? 😕 I suppose it sort of rhymes with love, in a tortured sort of way. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/25 "2011-01-25T00:02:14Z")
I’ll be the first person to admit to saying “South”-ern. I do live near Ottawa. I don’t think I saw “south-ern” so much as I saw “sou-thern”, though. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/26 "2011-01-25T00:23:29Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Suth doesn’t rhyme with love? The vowel sound in there isn’t the same to you? 😕 I think the consonant sound at the end blows the rhyme for most of us. ---
**Author:** ![seanchai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@seanchai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seanchai)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/27 "2011-01-25T00:26:44Z")
Canadian prairies. We pronounce it as SOU-th-ern. 3 syllables, slurred together. You can do it if you try:) an seanchai ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/28 "2011-01-25T01:00:46Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Suth doesn’t rhyme with love? The vowel sound in there isn’t the same to you? 😕 IIRC then having the same vowel sound is [assonance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assonance), which is a kind of rhyme but not a [perfect rhyme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_rhyme). ---
**Author:** ![Registered\_at\_Last](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc79bd/32.png) [@Registered\_at\_Last](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Registered_at_Last)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/29 "2011-01-25T21:28:08Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > And, coincidentally enough, I am in Ottawa and this is where I am hearing it. > > It would appear that it is a pronunciation completely isolated to this region of English-speaking persons the world over. > > Very interesting. > > ETA: And I had absolutely no idea about the **suth-ren** thing. Native Ottawan checking in (albeit with an English (Nottingham) father and southern Ontario mother) Definitely suthern. Don’t forget that “Ottawa born & bred” is pretty darn rare in Ottawa! (Especially in high tech) (And I have heard it before, but not often enough to remember who said it) ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/30 "2011-01-25T23:37:28Z")
As per my location field, I live in WV, in the Appalachian mountains. The entire time I was growing up, it was pronounce “App-uh-lay-shun” or “App-uh-lay-shuh” (for the region); in the past few years, there’s been a trend towards saying “App-uh-latch-en” or “App-uh-latch-uh”, and it makes me stabby. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/31 "2011-01-26T00:03:08Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > As per my location field, I live in WV, in the Appalachian mountains. The entire time I was growing up, it was pronounce “App-uh-lay-shun” or “App-uh-lay-shuh” (for the region); in the past few years, there’s been a trend towards saying “App-uh-latch-en” or “App-uh-latch-uh”, and it makes me stabby. :rolleyes: I get stabby because in my experience is exactly the opposite with “Appalachia(n)”. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/32 "2011-01-26T01:19:06Z")
> [@evilbeth](#): > > I get stabby because in my experience is exactly the opposite with “Appalachia(n)”. Well, I guess that just proves you can’t please everyone. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/33 "2011-01-26T15:06:48Z")
I say “suthren” as a mockery of Dennis DeYoung’s pronunciation of “modern” in Styx’ “Mr. Roboto”. Other than that I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way but “suthern”. To rhyme with “love”? Ummm, “suvren”? Would that be like “smove” for “smooth”? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/34 "2011-01-26T15:41:32Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > I have heard the occasional foreign-born professor pronounce it that (wrong) way. The same kind of fellows who would pronounce “equals” as if the word All was in it. ‘ee quAlls’. Or the word ‘only’ as if the word ‘one’ was part of it. "one-ly’. It’s kind of endearing, in a way. I’m guessing this was a professor from India. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/35 "2011-01-26T15:55:40Z")
Southron used to be a common alternative for southern. I’m assuming that’s where the “suthren” pronunciation comes from. ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyOgre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@FuzzyOgre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyOgre)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/36 "2011-01-26T16:30:00Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Ooops. Forgot we had another data point of SOUTH-ern from **EmAnJ** in Western Canada too. Me too, Alberta raised, and its always suth-ern or suthren. ---
**Author:** ![Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Prelude\_to\_Fascination](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prelude_to_Fascination)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/37 "2011-01-26T16:35:43Z")
"Suth"ern, but occasionally, my father would pronounce south as “sooth,” as when driving, and looking at a map, “We need to go sooth,” but that was more along the lines of a deliberate mistake, almost an unfunny joke that only he understood. But yeah, I’ve never heard "South"ern. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799/38 "2011-01-26T16:40:13Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Is there any English-speaking dialect where this mispronunciation is considered correct? This pronunciation is fairly common – although not universal – among speakers of Indian English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-suth-ern-you-imbecile-pronunciation-question/568799.md?page=1)