Pecan is a rising fall flavor — however you pronounce it

"Pecan" isn't just a pie flavor this fall. And it doesn't just have one pronunciation.Dig in: DoorDash named pecan 2025's top fall flavor, because orders of pecan-flavored items are up 28% year-over-year. That's after Snickers turned its special-edition pecan bar into a regular item, and as Starbucks brings back pecan beverages as a fall menu item.The intrigue: The debate on how to say "pecan" is still nutty.According to Merriam Webster "puh-KAWN," "puh-CAN," and "PEE-can" are widely used.And depending on which survey you point to, either "PEE-can" (preferred by Northeasterners) or "puh-KAWN" is the most popular way for Americans to say it.Some people have very strong feelings about their preferred pronunciation.Between the lines: The word "pecan" comes from the native people who speak Algonquian languages. Their words for nut include one pronounced a lot like our "puh-KAWN." The closer you are to where the pecan trees natively grow, the more likely you might be to pronounce it that way," says sociolinguist Erica Brozovsky.But "pecan" was first borrowed by the French, and then borrowed by English speakers — some shifting the stress to the first syllable, probably because of phrases like "pecan pie," according to linguist Danny Hieber.The bottom line: There isn't one simple English pronunciation of the word, Hieber tells Axios. "This causes people a lot of angst, but that's just how language works."

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