No, I'm not pleased that most of my idiocies are non-fatal!

[dolari]

Decal.

How do YOU pronounce it?

Deh-KL? or DEE-kahl?

And where are you from when you say it?

Comments

[amw.livejournal.com]

I'd pronounce it "DEE-kal" with a short "a" like in "caliber". But it just occurred to me i don't think i've ever heard that word used in spoken conversation so i have absolutely no idea how to pronounce it. Interesting.

[chrysalis.livejournal.com]

Oops, have to fix the comment I just made. I pronounce it like amw does. I don't think I've ever heard "DEE-kahl", though I have heard de-CAL (Cal like Cal Ripken.)

And you know I'm in Maryland. :)

[dhd1.livejournal.com]

Interesting question, this one.

I usually say "sticker", and usually in reference to the self-adhesive ones. But when I was building models and came across the word "decal", as in the ones that had to be dipped in water to activate the glue, I came to use it – originally as "dek-all" but that sounded weird even to me, and I eventually came to use the "dee-kal" pronunciation.

One answer from Brisbane, Australia doesn't make a meaningful survey sample, though. ;)

[bambina-cricket.livejournal.com]

i say DEE-kal- I'm from Utah originally.
Though I've banished most of my naturally aquired accent, I don't think I could ever bring myself to pronounce it deckle. A deckle just sounds like something I don't want around :P
I'm trying to think of how they say it in the movies :P

[gwenners.livejournal.com]

DEE-kahl, here, in Sunny California.

Cheers,
Gwen Smith

[wyndhover.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it to rhyme with 'wee gal'. :)

Born and raised in Dallas.

[max-volume.livejournal.com]

Dee-Cal, from Northern Virginia. :)

[salamanders.livejournal.com]

um Deh-cal here, never did get the whole DEE-CAL thing, but it could just be me...or Canadians...I dunno

[emilydm.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that, I say Deh-cal too, but wasn't sure if it was Canadianism or just me pronouncing it wrong. (Which has been known to happen rather frequently.)

[salamanders.livejournal.com]

Well if we are saying it wrong, we're saying it wrong together

But as far as I can remember my entire family says it that way too

[lianneofkaos.livejournal.com]

Born and raised in Alberta and I've always pronounced it that way as well.

[salamanders.livejournal.com]

Okay seems so far the concenses is that Canadians say Deck-cahl (yay phonetic spelling)

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is...I knew that (there's a Trinoc story about that). :) I just wanted to see who ELSE says it that way.

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

I pronounce it dee-CAL, and when I say it, I'm from... Decatur?

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

DEE-cal (not "kahl"). Maybe dee-CAL, but always with the same pronunciation, even if the stress differs. Western United States (California and Oregon).

[madrona.livejournal.com]

Also a DEE-cal sayer from Oregon. Fairly confident on this as I actually hear people talk about decals kind of a lot (people here like putting those big stickers on their laptops and such) and this is the only pronunciation I've heard.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Now that I think about it, I stressed the second syllable when I lived in California, and in Oregon I stress the first syllable.

[kireishojo.livejournal.com]

me and the boyo pronounce it the same as you and we're west-coasters as well

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

Another Canadian weighing in who pronounces it "dekle" although being true to our British roots we should really say "transfer"

[starsarefar.livejournal.com]

dee cal, as in dee snider and cal-ifornia, from not quite as sunny northern california

[nonhumanreason.livejournal.com]

when i say it it sounds like Day-kal or maybe deh-kahl ... I am australian

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but accents vary you know. I come from double-ewe-eh originally, and I could detect a number of differences when I first moved to the Hunter Valley.

[nonhumanreason.livejournal.com]

I moved from Perth the hell hole to melbourne 11 years ago. Apparently my accent is 1/2 way between perth and Melbourne. It seems that makes me sound british.

11 years ago

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

Interesting, I achieved escape velocity from planet Perth about 11 years ago too. And funny too, because just the other week someone thought that I was British as well - go figure (as they say).

DECAL

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

From memory...

  "!&*%@!?!"

...said when, as a child I attempted put the decal on the side of the model plane, that resembled a a strange glob of artwork instead of a Junkers 88 (http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.historylearningsite.co.uk%2Fjunkers_88.htm&ei=nI_kRrmcEpakgQP6vIXkDA&usg=AFQjCNFLbL_wO3c-ISUy-dqMk9pO2lbpgg&sig2=tl0RPNTSXVNGPcZ5VoXd4g).

[salamanders.livejournal.com]

I just remember every christmas from the 80s Dad and my brother spending hours putting on the "deck-kals" onto his transformers that he got. It always was a major father-son bonding moment for those two :D

[ghostangel.livejournal.com]

Dee-KAL

to quote wikitionary

[kireishojo.livejournal.com]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decal

[nathan-r.livejournal.com]

DEE-kal. I've never even heard any other pronunciation.

(It's far too early in the morning to be spelling words like "pronunciation.")

[nightshadepyre.livejournal.com]

D-cal. as in saying the letter and the first syllable of california. depending upon my mood i've also said /duh-kal'/.

soy de Texas.