Very/Vary
<<Most Americans use either the "trap" vowel for "vary/various" (like I do) and some use the "dress" vowel. >>
Most Americans I've heard use the "dress" vowel there.
<<JC Wells also claims that Americans rhyme 'mirror' with 'nearer'. I don't. Not when I'm speaking GenAm and not when I'm speaking RP. I've always used "near" for "nearer" and "kit" for "mirror".>>
Where are you from? I have [I] for "nearer" and "mirror." Note that what Wells references tends to be the majority American pronunciation and by no means represents all Americans.
As a speaker of Australian English, I pronounce them differently.
very ==>> /verI/ ==>> [ver\i]
vary ==>> /ve:rI/ ==>> [ve:r\i]
Also
merry ==>> /merI/ ==>> [mer\i]
Mary ==>> /me:rI/ ==>> [me:r\i]
marry ==>> /m{rI/ ==>> [m{r\i]
SpaceFlight,
Your link doesn't work as you'd intended it.
"Happy tensing (the term is from Wells 1982): final lax [I] becomes tense [i] in words like happy. ... it is uniformly present in ... Australian English,"
I speak AusE. Must have been typos.
Why is it not working the way I intended it to work?
Wikipedia must be limited in the way it's links work, I guess.
No, I don't have the furry-ferry merger. I guess it's just that one word, bury. But I am from Philadelphia.
The above post is a response to "Guest."
<<Do you have the furry-ferry merger?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_r#Furry-ferry_merger>>
To me, the "e" in "very" is the same as in "get;" and the "a" in "vary" is the same as in "cat."
Since I learned standard American English I decided to stick to the dictionary as best I could.
Check
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/.
I pronounce them both the same way...
very & vary /vEri/ or /vE@`i/
I pronounce them differently:
very - /vE4i/
vary - /veri/
<<very - /vE4i/
vary - /veri/>>
Typo.
very - /vE4I/
vary - /verI/
No Mary-marrry-merry merger for me. I pronounce "very" and "vary" differently: the vowel in the latter is longer.
I've repeated myself. It's best to read the thread before you post.