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We say Mary, Merry, and Marry the same. The context of the dialogue controls which word is used and notifies the receiver of the sender's intended meaning.
Probably a more likely scenario would be the following: Mary has just married; and, it would be an understatement to say that she is overjoyed, she's downright merry!
What about the pronunciation of 'orange' and 'horrible'? Or 'sure'? To me they are the main shibboleths dividing east and west.
In the Philly accent it is pronounced as "ahrange" and "hahrrible" and similarly, "Florida" is pronounced as Flahrida. I personally pronounce "sure" the same way as "shore". Being from Philly, I don't understand how most of the U.S does not pronounce marry, merry and mary all distinctively. It guess its a northeastern thing lol.
I find a few of these interesting, especially mayonnaise being 3 syllables in the NYC area, that's one I've never heard, it's always "man-aze". I've never heard "sear-up" either, it's "sih-rup". And I never say "you guys", that doesn't even sound right, it's "y'all" lol.
Also, the term "tennis shoes" always sounded ridiculous to me lol.
That's funny! Mayonnaise does have three syllables. I don't know anyone who pronounces it with just two. I say sih-rup, too.
I found it amusing that a coworker from Indiana said "tennis shoes" for sneakers, and then I was shocked to find out on CD that "sneakers" is in the minority.
I remember speaking to a lady in the Bahamas, and she said she went shopping every year in Florida and would buy her son "tennis" there because they were cheaper. From the context, I knew she meant sneakers, but she didn't even say the "shoes" part!
In the Philly accent it is pronounced as "ahrange" and "hahrrible" and similarly, "Florida" is pronounced as Flahrida. I personally pronounce "sure" the same way as "shore". Being from Philly, I don't understand how most of the U.S does not pronounce marry, merry and mary all distinctively. It guess its a northeastern thing lol.
Same way in North Jersey. My daughter's bf from Rochester, NY, made fun of us for that!
I'm learning that the Mary/marry/merry distinctions ARE probably northeastern. It's not just those words, though--they are pronouncing "berry" as barey and probably doing the same thing to the name Barry as well! I guess somewhere along the line the vowel distinctions got lost, just as happened with the "i" and "e" in words like pin and pen.
That's funny! Mayonnaise does have three syllables. I don't know anyone who pronounces it with just two. I say sih-rup, too.
I found it amusing that a coworker from Indiana said "tennis shoes" for sneakers, and then I was shocked to find out on CD that "sneakers" is in the minority.
I remember speaking to a lady in the Bahamas, and she said she went shopping every year in Florida and would buy her son "tennis" there because they were cheaper. From the context, I knew she meant sneakers, but she didn't even say the "shoes" part!
Yes, agreed. I had no idea about the "tennis shoes" haha. And Mary, merry, marry most definitely have different pronunciations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kidphilly
Are Berry, Barry, and Bury the same in other parts of the country, just curious as to me they would all be different
Haha, great question. The Philly "bury" is really emphasized.
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