Friends, I’m posting this on a couple of forums because I’m a little cornfused.
At present, I’m down in the Deep South and I swear when someone tells me something is “Kiln-dried,” it is pronounced “KILLdried.”
The dictionary say the N is not silent, but when I hear fokes down here say it, that N is not in what they’re saying.
Is this the standard pronunciation everywhere or am I tone deaf?
I have lived in South GA almost my entire life. I never heard anyone say KillDried.
I don’t think it’s a colloquialism.
I’ve lived all over Florida and have never heard it pronounced that way even when I lived in the swampiest of swamps. 
Definitely KILN, with the ‘N’ up here in the north (midwest, Michigan)
These things are regional. In Charleston SC, we would pronounce the N. 30 miles north, we would not pronounce the N and we would make four syllables out of it. I wouldn’t worry too much about it since the tool behaves the same either way.
Careful on the generalities. I’m from Michigan. My father was a general carpenter foreman for The Austin Company. He always pronounced it “kill”. I worked as a carpenter, as well as other trades, as I put myself through college. I heard it as “kill” a lot. I’m 78 years old so there is that.
I also frequently heard column pronounced as “col-yume” a lot. And, especially in the Detroit area, folks say “ash-fault”. Elmore Leonard speaks to this in a novel or two.
The process does kill insects, larvae and fungi in the wood, so maybe some folks think of it drying and sterilizing wood.
@bpedit Ash-fault is a new one for me!
I was raised as an Air Force Brat so I’ve spent a lot of time—37 moves now in almost 59 years.
Life has seemed to be a triangle between TX, FL, AL, KS, and the UP of MI at KI Sawyer. So, I pay attention to how things are said on “porpoise.” And I’m a wordsmith so it’s etched into me like raised wood grain.
I was on the phone with a distributor in the Montgomery, AL area yesterday and when I added the N, he asked, “What?!!” Then he said it “the right way.”
I know Ryan Drapela from Cutting it Close says “Kill,” too, and he’s down in rural South TX.
Thanks for your comment and going futher with it!
Tommy, that makes a lot of sense, sir!
Thank you for your comment!
Donny
@cheu I love to hear what people do with words as writing is a life-long passion.
Gotta watch out for those “Apple-chain” (Tommy Smothers’ version) mountain people on the other side of the NC line!
Thanks for your reply. Yes, the result is the same and I’d probably not asked by for the venerable wood man I talked to yesterday who didn’t understand when I added the N!
Make today the best Friday of your week!
@Tod1d Thanks for the reply.
I saw a Facebook picture posted yesterday of our sylvan neighbor catching a Superior bass, and my Apple Watch tells me every time it starts raining at was KI Sawyer AFB south of Marquetee. Beginning to wonder if it’s going to be another almost no-snow winter up your way.
Didn’t get up to the woods this past summer because of working to get this wood business off the ground. Sure did miss being up there!
Hope all is well in your world and thanks for the reply!
@CthulhuLabs and @CullenS, Thank you for the replies.
Interesting observations from each of your areas.
May today the best Friday of your week and happy cutting!
—Donny
Must have missed my generation (I’m 61). “Ash-fault” I’ve heard a lot.
I wonder if it’s ancestry/heritage as well. My wife’s dad is Swedish and he, and she both shall we say, exercise a lot of artistic freedom with the English language. 
Also notice the Fins up nort’ have their own kind of dialect. 
I won a piece of Bodark at a woodworking club. It was yellow so I looked it up on the internet and found NOTHING. The Bodark is the Texas pronunciation of Bois de Arc also known as Osage Orange. So here in East Texas Bodark is a word for the wood but not sure about the rest of Texas or the US. It is like in New England a lot of W’s are not pronounced. Norm Abrams would say dras instead of drawers. With our cousins in the UK we are separated by a common language.
Plus the Kiln drying also Kills bugs so maybe people are talking about killing bugs in green wood as well as drying it. ???
Seems like a lively discussion. Here is Texas Oil is Earl so go figure. With my Texas accent no one ever has to guess where I am from. Bye Yuall.
Growing up in Tennessee, North Carolina and Southern West Virginia, I’ve heard…
Aunt pronounced as Ont, Ant and Aint.
Someone who kills themselves has committed “Sewerside”.
Maryville, TN is pronounced “Murvyl” by the locals. At one time, you could even buy a t-shirt with the with that on it.
I’m in Alabama, I have always heard it with the “n” here, but a lot of people here say “duck” for duct, so there is that. The “t” at the end of words seem to be a problem for lots of people, the “soft T” in the middle of words seems to be an opportunity for multiple pronunciations as well.
I have heard lots of people pronounce “drawing” as “drawing” but I have encountered one person who pronounces it “drawling”. I think the first one is commonish around PA. I have no idea where the latter comes from.
I’ve always heard it pronounced as it’s spelling kiln-dried. Now diving into my Midwest up bringing the word wash is pronounced warsh.
The town in Mississippi where Bret Farve is from is spelled Kiln, and is pronounced “Kill”. I was recently talking with a guy (in NE Louisiana) who owns a kiln and he continuously said “kill”
Some people get “Walmarts” or Walmarks” out of Walmart.
Spice of life!!
Looked this up on google:
How do Southerners pronounce certain words?
Last, a key indication of a Southern accent is the syllable stress in the first syllable with specific words. For example words like “cement”, “umbrella”, and “police” are spoken as “CEE-ment”, “UHM-brella”, and “PO-leese.” So I’m guessing that with “KIL-ndried” the “n” is softened almost nothing.