1 "Yup, Boomer" Billy Bob said, chewing his straw into his cheek. "This here is a right good fishin'-hole." "Uh-uh, Billy Bob." Boomer daintily replies. "This here ain't no fishin' hole. This here is a crick." "Ah, yup." replies the dashing Billy Bob. "A crick it is, a right purty one. And I'm fixin' to pee in it." The South. Oozing with elegance.

2 Helen, I'm from the bay area in California. We say 'crick' too.

3 And my "crick" originates from Western New York. Hah!

4 I don't mean to call you out, but um, there are 2 ways of pronouncing that word. You even supplied the evidence.... - try this link: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?creek001.wav=creek btw - I usually say crick too. It just depends on the company I'm with. I guess you could say I'm a reformed or recovering redneck.

5 Yup, that's what I was trying to say. There are two proper ways to say it. For the past thirtysomething years I've been castigated for pronouncing it "crick" when that is actually an acceptable pronunciation.

6 "And no cutting..." Is biting okay?

7 I just want to say that most modern dictionaries function as descriptive linguistic tools. That means they show the popular usage and pronunciation of words. Seems obvious? Well, the alternative is prescriptive linguistics which takes the right or wrong position on things and might suggest that one pronunciation is correct while the other is not. If you're looking for a prescriptive judgment on the pronunciation of a word, most dictionaries will not offer it to you. Cutting to the chase, just because Merriam Webster says it, just means that, yes, there are people out there who say it either way.