Pronouncing ''marry'' and ''Mary'' as /me@ri/ is not silly.

Uriel   Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:32 pm GMT
Oh, we know you're weird, Travis! ;)

Actually, when I first moved to the US, at five, I lived on the East Coast (Virginia and upstate NY). I did not move to the west until I was 18. But I suspect that moving around so much has prevented me from picking up any regional peculiarities.
Lazar   Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:17 pm GMT
When I was maybe 12 years old, I was reading a book for school in which a girl was named Erin. The girl was talking to a boy, and he said he thought Erin was a man's name, like Erin in the Bible. I thought that was weird when I read it, since I hadn't heard of anyone in the Bible named Erin. Only recently have I realized that the boy in the book was confusing Erin with Aaron (=Mary-merry-marry merger, which I don't have).
Uriel   Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:22 pm GMT
They are practically the same for me -- not quite, but it might be mostly in my head -- Arrin vs. Arrun might both come out Arren.
Joe   Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:34 pm GMT
Quote-''When I was maybe 12 years old, I was reading a book for school in which a girl was named Erin. The girl was talking to a boy, and he said he thought Erin was a man's name, like Erin in the Bible. I thought that was weird when I read it, since I hadn't heard of anyone in the Bible named Erin. Only recently have I realized that the boy in the book was confusing Erin with Aaron (=Mary-merry-marry merger, which I don't have).''

Where are you from, Lazar? I'm from New England and for me these words are:

Mary, marry, merry - /mE@ri/, /m{ri/, /mEri/

mirror, nearer - /mIr@`/, /nI@r@`/

horse, hoarse - /hOrs/, /hors/

furry, hurry - /f3`i/, /hVri/

cot, caught - /kQt/, /kQt/

father, bother - /fAD@`/, /bQD@`/

forest - /fQrIst/
Lazar   Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:40 pm GMT
Central Massachusetts. Here's how I pronounce those words:

Mary, marry, merry - /mE@ri/, /m{ri/, /mEri/

mirror, nearer - /mIr@`/, /nI@r@`/

horse, hoarse - /hOrs/, /hOrs/

furry, hurry - /f3`i/, /hVr\i/

cot, caught - /kQt/, /kQt/

father, bother - /fAD@`/, /bQD@`/

forest - /fQrIst/

They're all the same as your pronunciations, except I have the horse-hoarse merger.
Kirk   Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:55 am GMT
<<Only recently have I realized that the boy in the book was confusing Erin with Aaron>>

Oh yeah I guess that makes sense that you'd say them differently. I've definitely always pronounced those two the same, as ["Er\In]. I have a friend named Erin who once went to a conference and she had just given her name over the phone, and the person I guess had assumed she was a male named Aaron (her voice is feminine but I guess the person wasn't thinking) and wrote down her name as "Aaron" and so they ended up putting her in a male suite. I guess that kind of confusion wouldn't happen for "Mary-merry-marry" non-merged people :)
Travis   Mon Sep 05, 2005 12:57 am GMT
Here, as well, the names "Erin" and "Aaron" are homophones, as /"er\In/ -> ["e:.r\I~n]; I haven't myself even heard of them being pronounced differently by anyone until now.
Lazar   Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:22 am GMT
For me, of course, they're:

Erin - [Er\@n]
Aaron - [{r\@n]

It's funny - you grow up thinking that everyone exhibits the same distinctions and mergers that you do.
Joe   Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:48 am GMT
<<They're all the same as your pronunciations, except I have the horse-hoarse merger.>>

Lazar, yeah, for me ''horse'' and ''hoarse'' are pronounced differently. When I first heard that Mr. Ed song a long time ago that rhymes ''horse'' and ''course'', I was thinking ''What? those words don't rhyme.'' I had thought that it was just a lousy attempt at rhyming before I found out that most people made absolutely no distinction between ''horse'' and ''hoarse''.

For me:

horse - /hOrs/
course - /kors/
Joe   Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:50 am GMT
Does that story surprise you or not, Lazar?
SpaceFlight   Mon Sep 05, 2005 3:53 am GMT
I pronounce ''Erin'' and ''Aaron'' the same way.
Lazar   Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:01 am GMT
<<Does that story surprise you or not, Lazar?>>

No, not really. I was aware that many people in New England make the horse-hoarse distinction (I can recall several of my high school teachers who did so). And I've also had similar experiences concerning rhymes and non-rhymes.

For example, a while back there was a commercial for flea and tick medication for dogs. The commercial featured a little puppy who was singing a version of the Camp Grenada song: "Hello mother, hello father. Fleas and ticks are quite a bother."

I thought to myself, "Father and bother don't rhyme!" But later, of course, I found out that most Americans do in fact rhyme those two words.
Joe   Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:05 am GMT
<<No, not really. I was aware that many people in New England make the horse-hoarse distinction>>

No, I was asking if it surprised you that I actually had thought for a while that the rhyme on the Mr. Ed song ''horse'' and ''course'' was just a lousy attempt at rhyming.
Joe   Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:07 am GMT
I wasn't asking if it surprised you that I distinguish ''horse'' and ''hoarse', but if it surprised you that I actually had thought for a while that the rhyme on the Mr. Ed song ''horse'' and ''course'' was just a lousy attempt at rhyming.
Joe   Mon Sep 05, 2005 4:27 am GMT
<<For example, a while back there was a commercial for flea and tick medication for dogs. The commercial featured a little puppy who was singing a version of the Camp Grenada song: "Hello mother, hello father. Fleas and ticks are quite a bother.">>

Yeah, I could sing that song, but it wouldn't sound right, because ''father'' and ''bother'' don't rhyme for me.