Late this morning I was making egg salad for a sandwich. I opened a new jar of Duke’s light mayonnaise. On the top of the lid are the words: “Duke’s. It’s Got a Twang!” TM
This got me to thinking about this word and its meaning. My first thought is that it is an onomatopoeia which is a word that is a vocal imitation of a sound, (Ex: bang, buzz, whop). Then I thought that mayonnaise does not make a sound, so I had to look the word up. It has a 3rd definition not used by me. (All definitions here are screenshots from Merriam-Webster online dictionary.)
I have used this word to describe a person’s voice that has a high nasal accent like in many Southern US accents. I immediately thought of Jim Nabors, aka Gomer Pyle, who was an actor (The Andy Griffith Show, and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.) and a singer. These shows were popular when I was growing up.
My brother, sister, and I would tease my mother, and we associated her with Gomer Pyle. She grew up in Branson, Missouri near the Ozark mountains, and when she went back there she would start talking in a high nasal voice, which I guess was a throwback to her childhood. We would say to my mother, “How come I talk like this, but I sing like this?” We would try to imitate her high nasal accent and then try to sing smoothly like Jim Nabors. It was all to tease her, and my brother, the family comedian, was the leader of this.
I wanted to give you audio examples of what I am talking about. The files were way to large for this format here. I will give you pictures to research. (The album cover is from Internet Archive.) (I quickly grabbed the Gomer Pyle collection picture, so I don’t remember the source. But it is an ad.)
There are several clips of Gomer Pyle on the internet where you can hear the high nasal twang that his character had. You can also research his singing voice which was incredibly good, and nothing like his speaking voice.
He had an opportunity to sing on his Gomer Pyle show during the 4th season, in an episode titled "The Show Must Go On" which was aired November 3, 1967. Nabors sang "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha. (This information is from Microsoft Co-Pilot.)
https://youtu.be/PCC9fUTDO3E?si=HjOITgRW3KKWPgs8
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