‘Utahisms’: New book explores Utah’s unique expressions, inventions and place names

PROVO, Utah — A BYU linguistics professor says some sayings assumed to be homegrown to the Beehive State truly exist elsewhere and that a few of Utah’s distinctive pronunciations could be traced to pioneers.

“Folks have loads concepts about what Utahns say and a variety of them aren’t explicit to Utah,” stated David Eddington with Brigham Younger College’s Division of Linguistics. “Issues like, ‘How do you fill? I felled the take a look at.’ That’s discovered everywhere in the U.S.”

Eddington wrote the e book “Utahisms: Distinctive Expressions, Innovations, Place Names and Extra” that was launched this month.

“We discovered that Utah is the state with the most individuals of English ancestry,” Eddington stated

Eddington stated we are able to hint sure pronunciations to Utah pioneers, like the town of Hurricane in Washington County.

“In southern Utah folks say ‘Her-ah-kun’ and so they get laughed at like they took it and so they by some means made it unhealthy,” Eddington defined in an interview with KSL-TV. “And really that’s simply the British pronunciation.”

Utah additionally has one of the biggest populations of those who declare Danish ancestry, Eddington stated, and that would have influenced sure Utah phrases.

“One factor that could be Danish: Have you ever ever heard anybody say one thing like, ‘Oh, for cute. For cool?’” Eddington stated. “You discover that in Utah and also you additionally discover it in Minnesota. What do Minnesota and Utah have in widespread? Scandinavians.”

Eddington stated Utah acquired an enormous inflow of individuals from the Northeast and that additionally flavored sure pronunciations like calling the Utah County metropolis of Spanish Fork as “Spanish Fark,” which may also be traced to Eire.

That pronunciation is dying out in Utah, he stated, underscoring how language is at all times altering.

“Even when you go to at least one place, even when you go to Utah, you’ll discover variation based on the place persons are from, how previous they’re, how educated they’re, issues like that,” Eddington stated.

Learn extra about Eddington’s e book right here.