''pen'' in Kansas

Someone in Kansas recently asked me if I had a pin and I told them that I didn't have a pin and then later I found out that they really wanted a pen. Why do people from Kansas call pens ''pins''?

In many places throughout the American South, there is a merge between "en" (/En/) and "in" (/In/) sounds (as well as /@n/). We normally will say "pen" regularly, but will specific with "pin" ("safety pin", "clothes pin", "stick pin", etc.). Some people will also specify with pens ("ink pen", etc.), but I don't recall hearing that as often.

It's just a little happy feature of the Southern dialects.

''In many places throughout the American South, there is a merge between "en" (/En/) and "in" (/In/) sounds (as well as /@n/).''

So, are you saying that in those Southern dialects ''pan'', ''pen'' and ''pin'' all sound the same.

''In many places throughout the American South, there is a merge between "en" (/En/) and "in" (/In/) sounds (as well as /@n/).''

So, are you saying that in those Southern dialects ''pan'', ''pen'' and ''pin'' all sound the same.

I assume that that [@] is really the schwa sound not the [@] in Tom's chart. So, ''pan'' is distinct but ''pen'' and ''pin'' merge.

Barry --

Quite right. ;) I'm on too many message boards for ESL and Linguistics and each use a different version, so it's difficult to keep them straight. For "pan", I would typically write it as /pæn/.

Barry asks: "Why do people from Kansas call pens 'pins'?"

The answer is fairly simple, Barry...that's the accent in Kansas.

Barry:

The differences in accents and dialects of English is all part of the fun and fascination of the language! Any misunderstandings resulting from this fact make it even more interesting. It would be too awful if every English speaker emerged from an Accent Training School on a conveyor belt like automatons all speaking in an officially approved Standard Way of Speech. Like George Orwell's Newspeak. I'm glad you would get confused in Kansas. If I ever went there I would want to be totally and utterly bemused.

I don't think I would be lost for words though....I would speak and watch the Kansans' bemusement with amusement.

Damian,

I reckon I ought to go give that a whirl too one of these days.