Visitors and new residents to Evansville often make logical but incorrect stabs at pronouncing the names of streets and businesses until a kind soul fills them in.
For instance, Evansvilleโs 151-year-old Koch Enterprises may initially be pronounced like the famous political conservative Charles Koch (Coke) or the well-known three-term mayor of New York City, Ed Koch (Cotch). Here, we say โKochโ as โCook.โ
Evansville native Christia Ward understands why: The University of Evansville Theatre Department professor emeritus works as a dialects adjunct professor at the University of Southern Indiana. After spending her childhood in Guam and attending college in Evansville, her years of observing dialect quirks have informed her precise skills of ascertaining an accentโs origins.
The fact the city has always been a crossroads community explains a lot.
โEvansville has a South Midland region of dialect because when Indiana was the Western Frontier, people came from Appalachia, from Kentucky โ think of Abraham Lincoln,โ Ward says. โI think thatโs where the intrusive โRโ came from โ underneath it all is that southern dialect.โ
As well, Pennsylvania Dutch (German) and Irish immigrated to Evansville to work in the areaโs coal industry, expanding the cityโs dialect with European flair.
โGermans kept Evansvilleโs accent from getting super southern,โ Ward says. โThatโs what makes it unique.โ
