As the in-house lexicographer on Channel 4’s enduringly popular Countdown programme, Susie Dent has been arbitrating on word-related disputes for more than 30 years.
Now, Britain’s most famous word expert has revealed the question she is asked most frequently about the sometimes idiosyncratic English language: the correct pronunciation of the word “scone”.
Britons have been arguing about the right way to say the name of the small, crumbly cake – should it rhyme with “gone”? Or with “phone”? – for as long as they have been enjoying them.
But those hoping for a definitive ruling on the nation’s stickiest shibboleth will be disappointed: the Oxford English Dictionary says both ways of saying it are correct.
Dent, 59, who also appears on the programme’s more grownup sibling 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, is the host of a popular lexical podcast and tours with a stage show, The Secret Life of Words.
Writing in Woman’s Weekly, she said: “One question, unbelievably, was asked at every show without exception. And no, it wasn’t: ‘How do you put up with Jimmy Carr’s endless barbs [on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown]?’
“It was: ‘What is the correct pronunciation of scone?’ I would immediately ask the audience how they pronounced it, which was met by a cacophony of both versions – either rhyming with ‘phone’ or with ‘gone’.
“Happily, I was able to tell them that the dictionary diplomatically offers both.”
As with many things in modern Britain, scone pronunciation depends to a large extent on the origin of the speaker. Research by Cambridge academics in 2016 concluded that “for the north of England and Scotland, ‘scone’ rhymes with ‘gone’ , for Cornwall and the area around Sheffield it rhymes with ‘cone’ – while for the rest of England, there seems to be a lot of community internal variation”.
A visualisation that has been widely shared on social media reveals almost universal use of “gone”-rhymers in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the north of England down to York and Liverpool, strong pockets of “phone”-rhymers around Hull, Sheffield, Stoke and east of London, and a mixed picture everywhere else.
That is reflected in the choices of the UK’s best known bakers and cooks: Paul Hollywood, originally from Wallasey in Cheshire, opts for “skon”, as do Mary Berry (born in Bath) and Yorkshireman James Martin. Essex’s own Jamie Oliver, however, is a “phone”-rhymer.
Adding yet more confusion, in the US, scones – most commonly pronounced to rhyme with phone – are similar to what is there called a biscuit. Australians favour “skon”, although the town of Scone in New South Wales is pronounced “SkOHn”. Although the ancient town in Scotland after which it was presumably named, and the origin of the famous stone on which all British monarchs are crowned, is called “SkOOn”.
Dent may have braved the ire of her fans by wading into one of Britain’s most divisive topics, but she wisely steered clear of another that is almost as contentious – whether a cream tea demands spreading cream first on one’s scone, as Devonians insist, or jam, as favoured by scone rivals Cornwall.
