Gramer Girl here, I'm Minion Fogarty.

This week I have a tidbit about how to pronounce Carmel, or is it Caramel?

And a meeting middle about phrases we get from sports.

Let's get started.

Jeffrey Rodan, after he noticed that I pronounced Caramel as Carmel a few weeks ago, and that

sounded wrong to him.

The Harvard Dialect Survey found that the three-cellible pronunciation, Caramel, is dominant

all along the east coast of the United States, from Maine to Florida, and extending into

the south through Atlanta, Mississippi, Louisiana, and parts of Texas.

Jeffrey, it turns out, was born and raised in New York, which explains why Caramel is

the way he is used to hearing it.

My parents are from the Midwest, and I grew up in Seattle, and I've lived in the West

my whole life, and I rarely recall anyone pronouncing it Caramel.

Although the Harvard Dialect Survey maps show that there are some people here who do

pronounce it that way.

The most memorable thing for me is Carmel apples, which has a melodic sound with both words

having two syllables, Carmel Apple.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone call them Caramel apples.

Gardner's Modern American usage acknowledges three pronunciations for the word, saying

Caramel is best, Caramel is second best, and Carmel is worst, although he doesn't give

a reason for his ranking.

I'll concede that the three-cellible pronunciations better reflect the spelling of the word,

...