In Louisiana, we all say "pecaaaan"!

99% (Dixie). Is General Lee your father?

And 33girl is right. This has nothing to do with your accent, but the words you use. For example, my accent is not as pronouced as it use to be. However, most of the time, I still use the same phrases as I did growing up. Such as: "I'm fixin' to go get a cherry coke-a-cola. Y'all want one?" As such, it is more my turn or phrase - and to a lesser degree, my *soft* Southern accecent (rural twang after a few bourbons) - that clues most people in that I am a Southerner.

Bless their hearts.

Are you getting a pa as in pathetic, and can is like khan?

Exactly! Rather than P-can.

there's a commercial that keeps coming on that uses pe-khan and it drives me INSANE.

its like people who come here and think the "Duane" in "Duane Reade" is pronounced "doo-juan."

umm no, idiot. its "doo-wayne." then again, Houston St. is pronounced "House-ton."

Rather interesting test:
44% (Yankee). Barely into the Yankee category.

yeah there we go, can't stand that one.

I say pee-can.
Then again, I also said nuke-you-lar, until W. caught so much crap for it.

I use puh cohn (rhymes with John)

Here, Duane is one syllable dwayne

One of my pet peeves, as an Italian is how that is pronounced. It's not Eye Talian, it's It (rhymes with sit) alian. I've never heard someone say "Eye taly" for the country!

This thread reminds me of the SNL skit with Christopher Walken singing "You say potato..." and saying the words the same everytime!

LOL, hooray Sheetcake's back!

And reading this thread, all I can hear in my head is that exchange between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" when they're in the museum talking in the funny voices and he's trying to get her to say "Pee-can pieee".

I put people that insist on "puh-cahn" in the same category with the people that insist on "fihnance" (real fast, almost monosyllabic) instead of "fie-nance". As though the mere pronunciation makes their context superior. Whatever. Move on.

You can say p-can all you want, Nittanyalum! I say things my own way and refuse to change..ie. "q-pon" instead of coupon, "prolly" instead of probably (don't ask, I don't know why I do this!), "deddy" instead of daddy. I only say p-can when I'm being goofy. If you say it with praline, though, puh-khan is the only thing that sounds right! (By the way, praline is pronounced prah-lean not pray-lean!)

I actually vary the way I say it, depending on where and when I say it and in what context ("There's a slice of p-can pie." "That pie is full of pe-cahns." I don't know why I do it either). So I don't have a problem with saying it any way you want to, I have an issue with people that insist that the ONLY way to say it is... xyz.