posted
B for me, but I've known A people, too. They are enough of a minority in my experience that I always take note when I hear it.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
B. But I'd like to add that I've also pronounced it the other way. But it never came out sounding anything like fury. Are you sure you didn't mean to write 'furry'?
edited to insert 1 word.
Posts: 993 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I grew up in a town with 'bury' in it, but when pronounced by locals sounds like "berry". But when using the word by itself, I am a mix of A and "berry".
-Bok
EDIT: I guess I am more a B as well, but in my neck of the woods, "ferry" and "marry" don't rhyme Posts: 7021 | Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I pronounce "bury" exactly the same way I pronounce "berry" or "Barry". It's the same sound as in "bear" and "bare".
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
I agree with Bok: when I say it, it's closer to B, but I pronounce marry and ferry differently.
Actually there are three different sounds for Mary, marry, and merry. I pronounce "bury" like "merry".
Although sometimes, when I'm lazy, it's more like "Mary". From back in the days when I couldn't hear the difference between Mary and merry.
Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I don't. One of them begins with an "m" and the other with an "f". Oh, and one has a "d" sound at the end.
But the vowel? Absolutely. I think that may be what people mean when they talk about Midwestern flatness of speech. I think we have fewer vowel sounds than other regions.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Ditto. Mary, bury, ferry, Gary, Jerry, Larry, merry, dairy, marry. All the same, with a long 'a' sound. And I am definitely not from the midwest, so I have no idea where that comes from.
Actually, I have been told by people from every region of America that I have no accent (well, obviously an American accent, but no more divergence from there).
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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Mare-ee feh-ree Ga-ree (with an "a" like in rat or mat or sat) Jeh-ree La-ree (like Gary) Dare-ee Ma-ree (also like Gary)
Mary, Marry, and Merry are three different pronounciations for me. It souns very weird and regional to say them all the same.
So, if you were to say "Isn't it merry that I'm going to marry Mary?" - you'd use the same word three times?
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I pronounce buried identically with berried, using a totally different vowel sound than the one in married.
(On the other hand, I pronounce Mary and marry identically, though I can hear the distinction made by others.)
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I was in a show where I had to say "married", and the speech coach spent thirty minutes trying to get me to say it correctly (i.e. standard american) before finally giving up.
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Well at least the thread made it to page two before someone starting throwing around the label "homophone".
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Flying Cow, I see you're in NJ, is that where you're from? I'm from Long Island and I make the same pronunciation distinctions you do. I don't think that pronouncing merry, marry, and Mary the same is just Midwestern--I think it's true for most of the U.S. except for the Northeast.
Anyway, buried sounds like berried but not like married or curried in my little accent.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Woah, I guess I'm pretty weird then. On merry, Mary, and marry though I do say the last two the same with the stress on the 'mar', but with merry where I stress it is a bit unclear.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I am close to B, but not quite. I also have differences in how I pronounce "marry" and "merry", too. The first is more like "cat"; the second is more like "get".
I am also midwestern.
Posts: 11187 | Registered: Sep 2005
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posted
I'm another one for whom Mary, marry, and merry are all the same. In fact, vonk's whole list, above, are all rhyming exactly to me (rhyming with airy, e.g.). Hence, for me, married and buried rhyme.
I've heard it pronounced the other way (as in furry and curried), but I mainly associate that with a southern-type accent.
Posts: 4077 | Registered: Jun 2003
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I don't know why this is. I'm from Texas and Utah, but I spent a lot of time talking to people in Detroit so sometimes I will have a Michigan/midwestern accent from that experience.
Jon Boy, any theories?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: Mary has the same "ar" sound as mare, care, bear, fair, stare, etc...
Merry has the same "e" sound as bet, get, set, wet, etc...
Marry has a true short "a" sound, like in rat, cat, sat, hat, fat, bat, etc..
Ah, I do say Marry and Mary both with an "a" like in care, but I do say merry as in bet, get, set, wet, etc.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Yes, I'm from NJ, but I have thankfully avoided most of the dialect from the state. I've traveled a lot and read a lot, and that has colored my pronounciation considerably. I'm always asked when I travel where I'm from, because no one can seem to guess - and everyone's always surprised when I say New Jersey.
The only classic dialect NJism I have really noticed is that I say the word "dog" more like "dawg" - it doesn't rhyme at all with log, frog, bog, etc... which are all said with an "ah" vowel. My brother in law from Maryland says them all with the "aw" sound, and my friends from Pennsylvania say them all with the "ah" sound. I'm caught in the middle.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
The thread where we beat the merry, marry, Mary horse good and dead. Well, I did anyway, with my strange fixation on the concept!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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When I read the word, in my head, I pronounce it as A (similar to Curry).
I think I say Mary, marry and merry all the same as well but I am now so mixed up, what I "think" that I say might not be what I really say. (This might be what I get for being a Canadian who has lived in western, the midwest and the Eastern United States) Gah!
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
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