SCONE: The Big Story of a Little Cake | History of the English Language 

I'm from Northern California, where it always rhymes with phone. In fact, when I was visiting my stepdaughter in Surrey, I was surprised by the skahn reference. I couldn't figure out WHAT she was offering, but her subsequent tutorial most definitely put the cream on first, the jam after. Good thing she patiently explained it all, because "cream tea" didn't carry any meaning, either!

I love ethimology and metrics of words and their use. It's much appreciated!

I'm in the Skon camp from Liverpool, like most Northeners. Yet I think years ago people opted for skone because thought it sounded 'posher'. Jam first, it's logical, stops the cream from being absorbed into the base.

In the 1958 poem "How to Get on in Society", John Betjeman sets up the rhyming scheme to give the "wrong" pronunciation of a non-U aspirational social climber. The poem is a satire based on Nancy Mitford's list of non-upper class terms, and the pronunciation of scone is the final giveaway: Phone for the fish knives, Norman As cook is a little unnerved; You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes And I must have things daintily served. Are the requisites all in the toilet? The frills round the cutlets can wait Till the girl has replenished the cruets And switched on the logs in the grate. It's ever so close in the lounge dear, But the vestibule's comfy for tea And Howard is riding on horseback So do come and take some with me Now here is a fork for your pastries And do use the couch for your feet; I know that I wanted to ask you- Is trifle sufficient for sweet? Milk and then just as it comes dear? I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones; Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

'Schoon' is an interesting Dutch word in itself because it's one example of the meaning of words changing in Netherlands Dutch but not in Flemish Dutch. ' Schoon' these days means clean, except for in 'schoonheid' which means beauty. 'Mooi' is the word for beautiful these days and 'schoon' is recognized as old fashioned. 'Schoon' is still used very much but it means clean. In Flanders it still means beautiful, for clean the Flemish use 'kuis', which in the Netherlands exclusively means chaste.

I always assumed there was a class distinction involved. Nobody in my family said it with a long o, but posher kids at school often did. But when I moved from NE England to the Nottingham I found that the locals mostly used the long o, and some of them thought I was putting on airs by using the short o!

I've always pronounced it as 'skon' because my anglophile Hungarian grandma used to bake spectacular ones and called them so :-)

It is a pleasure listening to this kind of content about UK. The only history similar to this one tha comes up in my mind is whether a typical dish of Sicily should be masculine (Arancini) or feminine (Arancine).

I am in Norfolk UK, everyone I know says S-Kon. Asking around this morning the consensus in my coffee shop was that people trying to be posh say S-kone

The village in Scotland is pronounced Scoon, as i was told when I visited it. Also I am from East Sussex and say S-kon.

I can’t be the only one who stopped everything they were doing to watch Master Gideon’s latest video! 🤣 I find fascinating maps showing "words/pronunciations dividing Britain". My country (France) has a big debate over "pain au chocolat ou chocolatine" (yet everybody say "pain aux raisins" not "raisintine" 🤔) Btw are you a member of #TeamJamFirst or #TeamCreamFirst ? You showed us how to make the perfect cuppa & we all take your words as gospel, you are the epitome of Englishness

I've lived in New Zealand for some time, and a local, as I think, woman who cooked and baked food at my work was calling them "skəunz". I also remember having an argument over "eipricəts" vs "æpricəts" with her (she was saying it the second way. And I don't know where I've learned it, but it's definitely the first one that sounds right for me.)

I really like your videos Gideon and appreciate the references to related content. What would be even better than the links as "pop ups" in the video would be links in the about section as I always want to finish watching the current video before exploring the referenced video. As it is now, I have some issues to find the references after finishing the current video. Kind regards, Jim

I'm from London and I've always said s-kone. I put jam on one half and cream on the other then put them together.

I do none of those, but I did enjoy watching this intriguing video. thank you, Gideon.

I pronounce it Skon, and if it's warm, the clotted cream goes first, if it's cold, the jelly. The 'g' is silent. Nice video!

Gabor Maté has really switched up his style since moving to the UK and getting into pastries.

Thank you for all those videos Gideon. Looking fwd to your upcoming video about the different registers. Warm regards

Love this! I'm American and was taught by a Welshman to say "skon."

Quite enjoyable. Thank you

I almost p...d my pants laughing when the dutch lady packed out her SkkkkhhhhhounbrouT ! 3:36 LOL I'd have a VERY HARD time getting used to dutch if started to live there. KH-Sound everywhere! lol

In Canada, I've almost always heard "skawn" and hardly ever "skoan." This probably reflects the dominant role of Scotland and northern England in Canadian history, and the lesser role of southern England. They are not an everyday treat in Canada, but common enough to be familiar to most people. Scottish shortbread is just as common. The biggest controversy is the correct pronunciation of "poutine" when speaking English, which varies quite a bit. In Canadian French, it's very different from how someone in France would pronounce it.

In the Rhineland they say "Berliner" (and they are similar to scones!). But in Berlin they call them "Pfannkuchen" because they were originally baked in a pan. In the Rhineland Pfannkuchen are flat pastries. It has nothing to do with the [skonn] - [skouns]-discussion but I thought I could mention it.

In the US, I have only heard "skone". And rarely. It is not a popular thing. Generally, not commercially available. Expirimental home bakers, mostly. My main experience was in an indie coffee shop in South Minneapolis where one of the employees who was also a gifted baker. I ate a lot of her scones with butter. Delicious, and worth every penny!

schoon = clean, so schoonbroed makes sense as the name for a scone. basically means plain. interestingly, skoon in afrikaans became a dipthong (skoo-en), whereas its a single sound in the dutch (shorn).

It's not food related, but in the US, the first thing I can think of is Louisville, Kentucky. Some say "loo-ee-vill" and others, usually locals, say "lool-uh-vill"

Interesting as always

As an Indian, I would like to mention 'biryani ' as an example of the kind of food that has veritably divided nations. Thanks Sir G.

I love scones as much as I love your lessons, Sir G.

Well, as far as I remember ,Queen Elizabeth in 'The Crown' series was seen layering her scones first with clotted cream.and then with jam while having tea with Mrs.Kennedy who came over to see her on the purpose of reconciliation. Thanks Sir G.

in NZ i have only heard Scone as in gone so we laugh like mad when we hear skone

Another example I can think of is Sloth. Some pronounce to rhyme with both, others goth.

I’m from Southend, where it seemed that everyone said scone like phone, although I did not speak with the Southend accent, like the rest of my family, because I spent my early, language-forming years in a children’s home, where we were taught to speak as though the queen might drop in for tea at any moment! We moved to Australia when I was just starting high school and, although I did the best I could to get rid of my accent (because it was instantly assumed that I was a snobby private school girl), I stubbornly persisted with my pronunciation of scone! Until today, when I watched this video 😂

2:23 If you put the jam on first, then the cream (I prefer butter actually) just slips and slides all over the place and it all gets very messy, don't you agree?

Another discovery from this channel, in São Paulo I've never seen skone, I got the recipe, British curiosities interests me a lot🍩🍪✔️ thanks Gideon 🤠

I live for scones with raisins. They are my raison d’être. (Raisin d’être?)

"Tomato tomahto, potato potahto, let's call the whole thing off!," lol We say scones in my family, like 'homes' or 'drones' !

My English grandmother, who came from Manchester to the US in 1915, always said skone, so the whole family did. I never heard skon until much later, as Americans' equivalent is called a biscuit! I thought the skon pronunciation was a "country" thing, but it seems it's more regional. As for the tagliatelli thing, we always say that the British are hellbent on mispronouncing every foreign word, as are many Canadians.

Scone to rhyme with gone...and clotted cream before the jam (though I really prefer cheese scones - and one café near me serve them with cream cheese and tomato relish)

Thanks a lot.

V Interesting, as always. Thank you. But if the Great Vowel Shift was less noticeable in the North, why does Sheffield and South Yorkshire use S-KONE? Isn't this inconsistent?

Chorizo or "Choritso". It's amazing how many English people pronounce the name of this delicious Spanish sausage incorrectly.

At the end of the day, I adapt how I say something to current company, if only to ease friction. And "schoonmoeder" (I'm one of them) adds yet another meaning to schoon that makes even us Dutchies grin, a good "monster" (which means "sample" in Dutch). It seems that meanings shift like vowels; for example in some slavic languages, "beautiful" sounds almost the same as "red" whilst in others, it's two very different words.

I first got to know scones in Southern England, that's why I spelled them with a long o. But then I heard of your national debate and must say, that I like the short o much better. I'm a convert. 😅

8:42 In France there is a certain query on whether a Viennese pastry with two strings of baker chocolate in it is "pain chocolat" or "chocolatine" ...

Skåne County sometimes referred to as Scania County in English, is the most southern county of Sweden...so I thought maybe Semla (Swedish kind of scone) was first made in Skåne: but NO, did not find anything which would state that.

Scone: butter first then jam then whipped cream. I’m from County Down, Northern Ireland. Obviously I say scone properly!

In Dutch, we have the word "saté," which is actually of Indonesian origin. It's basically skewered meat. There is a difference in pronunciation, though not so much on long or short vowels but on the emphasis. I myself am Dutch-Indonesian and therefore I put the emphasis on the first syllable. Most Dutch people put it on the second, which sounds kind of funny to my ears. And, by the way, my pronunciation of the Dutch word "schoon" rhymes with the long vowel version of "scone"; in some Dutch dialects, it probably rhymes with a faster cake, if not -- indeed -- the fastest in the world.

Where I'm from in the NorthEastern U.S., I've always learned "s-kone"...in case you were curious.

Delicious scone pronunciations: “sc OH ne” = “sc 😋 ne” while eating “scon” = It “ ‘s gone” after eating

In the excerpts from 8:21 to 8:34, which pronunciation do each of them use? I hear /skəʊn/, /skɒn/, /skɒn/ and /skoʊn/, is that correct?

When i eat scone, the cream comes first, then the jam. Thanks for your videos.

I say non of that since I wasn't familiar with these two words until this video came along :)

The 's-kon' prounciation predominates in Australia, I would think, which is weird coz English from southern England and also Ireland is the major influence on Aussie English.

The most typical food from the German area of Baden-Württemberg has to be the eggy noodle dish called Knöpfle (in the Baden part of Baden-Württemberg) or Spätzle (in the Württemberg-area). And since most of the people there never really got over the 1950s local area reform that turned those areas into one big federal state, people are still fighting over the correct term. The same goes for Samstag/Sonnabend (Saturday) by the way.

From Belgium. S-kone. Cream first. Probably influenced by Devon and Cornwall, where I spent many holidays in my youth... A similar fight is notorious in France, but does not involve pronunciation: pain au chocolat or chocolatine?

Great Video! Being Scottish, I agree with your pronunciation of scone, but Scone in Scotland is actually pronounced as "Skoon" (rhyming with spoon). FYI, I'd put the cream on first, then jam...

I've been learning German for about 7 months, and it turns out, that Northern Germany didn't have 2nd Germanic consonant shift and people can still say "maken", not "machen"(to make) or Appel, not Apfel(apple), but the lines of that distinction aren't precise, and I wonder, if there're places, where Germans argue if they "maken Appelkuken", machen Appelkuchen" or "machen Apfelkuchen" or "machen Appelkuken" (make an apple cake)? :)

Thank you for this lesson. I'll never ask for a scone when I visit the UK. Better safe than sorry.

While in Mexico we don't have as much problem with pronunciation, we do have issues with what name to give some foods. For instance, quesadilla. To most people in the north of the country, and pretty much outside the Metropolitan Area of the country's centre, it cannot be called quesadilla if it doesn't have cheese. Meanwhile, in the centre of the country, people call it a quesadilla even if doesn't have cheese. That debate can become quite heated when brought up amongst Mexicans from different regions.

Scone Gone joke works in African American English, because 'gone 'is pronounced with the same o as cone. both are nasalized and the n is reduced.

1:19 Is there some shop where one can by Marmite?

I am Canadian, I pronounce it "biscuit".

"Schoon" in Dutch would be pronounced like s+h+own, which will be nearer to the non-Scot pronunciation.

In Australia there is the town of Scone, which is pronounced S-Kone, but I reckon they eat S-kons there :)

Also in English, there is “the great pecan divide” with two pronunciations: Pa-kawn and PEE-can.

Beaton maybe isn't of Dutch origin. It's reputedly an anglicisation of the Gaelic surname Mac an Beathan.

Pretty fun video! Btw May I ask, tho it sounds a little bit stereotypical, but are you from Greece?

Flemish immigration to Scotland? I never knew that. This throws up the conundrum of height. While the dutch are famously tall and Scots are famously short. Particularly Glaswegians.

We have mantI and mAnti in Russian - delicious👌🏻 (there’s no ы sound in English so I put “i”). Both are plural, and both are correct according to dictionaries. Besides that there are many different words/names of food that have the same meaning:))) Sometimes they are so local that you won’t find them in most of dictionaries at all. Like baklazhan (eggplant) often called sinen'kiy (literally bluish, blue). Swiss German can also give lots of nice examples😅

An australian first told me that it is a scone and he pronounced it skone, but when I will come to London next month I will buy some skon.

Here in Dublin I say Skawn and TAAL-ya-tell-eh.

Here in New Zealand, we pronounce it skon.

Scone to rhyme with cone (I was raised in Wessex) , and I pronounce tagliatelle the Itallian way.. Its been so long since I;ve had a cream tea that I honestly cant recall whether I applied cream or jam first. Nowadays, I just have margerine on my scones Oh, and to me, Scone rhyming with gone sounds as if its a posh pronounciation! Maybe we just prefer long vowels in the SW and the further north and east you go they prefer short vowels?

I have understood it is Skoon Castle and Stone of Skoon for anointing Scottish kings. My mum thought ‘scone’ was posher but observation suggests otherwise. (Listen to Mary Berry.) I realise scones may be difficult to buy in Paris, but they are easy to make.

I seem to remember an episode of The Goodies where Tim Brooke-Taylor and Bill Oddie had an argument over the pronunciation of scone. Pronouncing scone as s-cone rather than s-con makes me cringe as when people pronounce shone sh-own rather than sh-on. Regarding the Stone of Scone, I thought the Scots pronounced is a "skoon".

6:47 Objection overruled. Great is not pronounced like "greet" in the "main dialect," though "bean" and "lean" and "meat" would suggest that. It' pronounced with the same vowel (or diphthong) that Alexander Pope gave "tea" and the Pogues do so too. May I suggest some reading of "Language Change : Progress or Decay" by Jean Aitchison?

I never had scones until I was an adult and never heard of them before and don't know the history of them.

My mum’s family is from Essex, so it’s skone for me. Tasty either way. 👍🏻

A village in Scotland called "Skon"? Do you mean the one pronounced" Skoon"?

In the U.S. (at least in Minnesota) I've only ever heard it pronounced s-kone. But then again, we use a lot of the long o sound in my state. Also, I think we would typically just use the word "biscuit" for that bread item instead.

If Mary Berry says skon, then we all know it's right. Jam first, then cream.😂 Also, tagliatelle the G is silent (I'm Italian).

It's a good question, is the same food word pronounced differently in one's own country. I can think of US "kah-fee" vs "caw-fee"... "pee-nut" vs "pee-nət" "egg" vs "aig" Then in the reverse there's the single pronunciation yet multiple spellings: "Bologna/Baloney" I am reminded of stopping in to an ice cream emporium on a hot day in Massachusetts. My GF asked for a "double dip". Clerk did not know what that meant. We described, "put one scoop on and then another scoop on top of it". "Oh!" said the cashier, "you want a Lodge". A Lodge? You're actually going to sculpt it into a building? Seems like a questionable use of time but okay... Only when we got to the car did we realize the cashier was saying *"large"* .

In the US it's whether or not you have a macaron-macaroon distinction.

The first picture of the one without raisins is what I’d call a biscuit. If it were half as thick, and required toasting, it could be an English muffin. I don’t know if they are called that in the UK. Muffins in general - the word sounds like it has been around a while but I could not say whence it came.

Dont forget Scone in Perthshire pronounced Scoon.😮

American regions are divided between how to pronounce pecan: PEE-can vs puh-CAHN.

So to remember the pronunciation, review "Swan scones Gorillaz" video?

Here in the US, I have always heard it pronounced S-KONE.

I am Dutch but never heard the word “schoonbrood”. Perhaps it was common centuries ago. I know “koekie”, that is: cookie.😂

The greatest debate since milk first or tea first. ps. 'S-kone' all the way for me ;P

In Norway we have something called "skonrokk". It is described as a dried whole grain bun. Pronounced like s(gone)rock Assuming a link between old Norse and English?

I think the Dutch pronunciation of 'schoon' is much closer to 'skone' than 'skon'.

I've spent some weeks in Devon, and as far as I remember you shouldn't ( or even mustn't) cut the scone, but tear it in half and then comes the butter followed by jam (jummy).

There’s another divide. It’s yoghurt! It does my head in when people say “yogg-urt” instead of “Yo-gurt.”

Always been in the "skon" camp, and found "skone" kind of weird and grating. Interestingly the place "Scone", near Perth, is actually pronounced to rhyme with "spoon" and not like either of the two bread cake pronunciations. Also, your examples of other "-one" words that are either pronounced "on" or "own" may confuse Americans. I realised, listening to audiobooks narrated by Americans that they pronounce the word "shone" to rhyme with "cone" and not "gone". Once you notice it you can't miss it, but it still jars.

How about Worcestershire ??? That's a fun one over here in the USA ;-) ... Here in Idaho they call fried bread "S-cones" Weirdos!

S-KON sounds wrong to me!🤔 Anyway this reminds me of "You say To-maydo I say To-matto, Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", lol 😅

[08:44] A:wot? B: tomAH'OH!

I was really triggered by your list of "Flemish" names at 4:55. Except for the obvious first one, I couldn't figure out any resemblance to Flemish or Dutch origins, and of the ones I checked Bruce and Balliol have clear Norman (French) roots, and Cameron is believed to be the Gaelic description of an alleged Danish progenitor's "crooked nose".