Mary/merry/marry

[JaneBanks]

Mary = A sounds like Air

Merry = E sounds like the E in Entity or Energy

Marry = A sounds like the A in Apple

That's my attempt at trying to explain. lol

 

[kaytieeldr]

Along those same lines:
Mary rhymes with dairy.

Merry rhymes with cherry.

Marry rhymes with carry.

It's about vowel sounds and the effect single consonants vs double consonants has on the way vowels are pronounced. I think it's interesting that people from outside the Northeast aren't hearing a difference in that YouTube clip.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

All the same in Georgia and Virginia.

So is Gym/Gem. And Pen/pin too.

 

[mombrontrent]

Along those same lines:
Mary rhymes with dairy.

Merry rhymes with cherry.

Marry rhymes with carry.

It's about vowel sounds and the effect single consonants vs double consonants has on the way vowels are pronounced. I think it's interesting that people from outside the Northeast aren't hearing a difference in that YouTube clip.

Dairy, cherry and carry all rhyme though

I do think gym/gem and pin/pen sound different.

 

[JaneBanks]

Dairy, cherry and carry all rhyme though

Not to me. They all have very different sounds.

 

[Minnesota!]

all the same in Minnesota

 

[EMom]

Texan here. Mary and merry are so close that it is virtually impossible to discern a difference. However, marry is so very different that I cannot fathom it being mistaken for Mary/merry. It's more like MAH-ree. The other two are like MEH-ree.

Growing up, I had ONE friend who talked about when she got "merried" and it drove me nuts.

 

[Minnesota!]

Dairy, cherry and carry all rhyme though

I do think gym/gem and pin/pen sound different.

I agree - dairy, cherry, carry all rhyme.

to me gym = jim. gem - jem. pin = pit, pen = pet.

 

[Anne34]

They all sound the same to me. - as do dairy, cherry


From the Chicago area

 

[Diznygrl]

Ha, I remember the last time this thread was brought up. I said all of these words/examples out loud countless times trying to convince myself that there must be at least SOME sort of difference that other people were hearing, but they all kept coming out sounding the same. The dialect map in the other thread suggests that everyone in the US except Jersey and Upstate NY agrees with me.

The only way I can make marry merry and Mary sound different is if I do my best impression of Buddy from Cake Boss.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Merriam-Webster pronunciations:

\ˈma-rē\ for marry, \ˈmer-ē\ for merry and \ˈmā-rē\ for Mary

American Heritage Dictionary pronunciations:

(măr′ē) for marry, (mĕr′ē) for merry and (mâr′ē) for Mary

The little scoop over the AHD vowels and the absence of any symbol on MW vowels means the vowel has a short sound (a=pat, e=pet). The straight line over the vowels in any case indicates a long vowel sound (a=pate, e=pete and indicates the y sound).

 

[castmemberb4]

From GA The first two sound alike and the third one is different.

Now I will say that older peple I grew up with pronounce Mary MAY-ree.
They also pronounce Marie MAA-ree, I was an adult before I realized that my Grandmother's friends name was Marie.
And my good friend Paula was Pauler .

 

[kimblebee]

I agree - dairy, cherry, carry all rhyme.

to me gym = jim. gem - jem. pin = pit, pen = pet.

LOL they sound the same to me too

Your explainations are spot on.

 

[shoney]

Ok so I watched this video like 10 times and listened really hard and they all still sound the same

I found another video on youtube...again not me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0gxuv48iU

 

[EMom]

See, if a man had asked me to "merry" him, that would have been reason enough to turn him down. Maybe it's the region of TX I am from, but I have only heard one person pronounce "merry" and "marry" the same. And she had all sorts of weird linguistic quirks for the area. I think her mom was an import..... (what we called non-Texans who moved to Texas when I was growing up)

 

[aprilgail2]

Along those same lines:
Mary rhymes with dairy.

Merry rhymes with cherry.

Marry rhymes with carry.

It's about vowel sounds and the effect single consonants vs double consonants has on the way vowels are pronounced. I think it's interesting that people from outside the Northeast aren't hearing a difference in that YouTube clip.

- these words are three different words- do not sound alike!

Dairy, cherry and carry all rhyme though

.

LOL--if you had a test in school here and you wrote down those words rhymed you would get a big fat zero on it LOL.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

They all sound the same to me here in CT.

 

[mhsjax]

Mary = A sounds like Air

Merry = E sounds like the E in Entity or Energy

Marry = A sounds like the A in Apple

That's my attempt at trying to explain. lol

I watched the video, I hear a total difference when she says them, but where I live if I said married like she did, my friends would ask me when I became a yankee. We just don't pronounce words like she does. It isn't right or wrong, but I think a lot of it really has to do with accents or lack of accents.

 

[kathie859]

Born and bred Kentuckian here and they all sound the same to me I even said them out loud, used them in sentences and still can't hear any difference (and not on the YouTube video either)

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Mary and marry? The same. Merry? Totally different from the other two. Just like the Merriam-Webster pronunciations posted above.

How does merry sound like Mary? They have two completely different vowels.