English, the Language.

[Miss Chicken]

I, and everyone I know pronounces Mary, Marry, and Merry the same (though there may be a slight difference with Merry).

I pronounce all three words different though that difference between merry and Mary is very subtle. Marry on the other hand is noticeably different.

 

[Trilliam]

Marry and Mary are pronounced the same almost everywhere

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

 

[SG-17]

Marry and Mary are pronounced the same almost everywhere

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

In American English Dairy and Carry rhyme.


I can't fathom it sounding any different, can any of you Australians find an audio file with the pronunciation (YouTube, Wikipedia, whatever)?

 

[Trilliam]

Marry and Mary are pronounced the same almost everywhere

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

In American English Dairy and Carry rhyme.

So you say "darry" instead of "dairy" Talk about people SEPARATED by a common language. I don't even know how one gets "darry" (double consonant after a vowel shortens the vowel), from "air".

 

[SG-17]

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

In American English Dairy and Carry rhyme.

So you say "darry" instead of "dairy" Talk about people SEPARATED by a common language.

Indeed. Check it out.

Fairy: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/En-us-fairy.ogg

Carry: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/En-us-carry.ogg

Edit: These wikitionary pronunciation audio files can sound off, especially because there is no sentence flow.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Marry and Mary are pronounced the same almost everywhere

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

I stand corrected. This isn't a major distinction between accents, of course, but it's the subtle things that are difficult to get right (anyone can drop an R for a non-rhotic accent).

 

[RoJoHen]

“Queue” is a goofy word, too. Its spelling seems...redundant.

We Americans don’t use that word much. We don’t queue up; we stand in line. Unless we’re from New York, where we stand on line.

Tell that to my Netflix Queue.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Mary, Marry, Merry with apparently an Australian accent. Trilliam, how accurate is that from your perspective?

Some American accent, not sure where, that does the same thing

 

[Trilliam]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English ?

That pronunciation of "fairy" sounds like "ferry" (as in boat).
THe "Carry" one sounds like the name "Kerry". Nothing like darry or dairy.

 

[RoJoHen]

Umm. my grandmother's middle name, Mary (rhymes with dairy/airy/fairy)sounds nothing like Marry (rhymes with carry, tarry, Harry).

In American English Dairy and Carry rhyme.

So you say "darry" instead of "dairy" Talk about people SEPARATED by a common language. I don't even know how one gets "darry" (double consonant after a vowel shortens the vowel), from "air".

Other way around. All of those words in American English have the "air" sound.

 

[Trilliam]

Mary, Marry, Merry with apparently an Australian accent. Trilliam, how accurate is that from your perspective?

Some American accent, not sure where, that does the same thing

Pretty close, though the "Mary" example was a tiny bit off. I'm in NSW whereas my Grandmother was from Western Australia. There are region difference between the different States. If you know what to listen for, you can pick fairly well what state someone is from. We're pretty big place, it would be weird if some regional variations didn't occur.

 

[Trilliam]

In American English Dairy and Carry rhyme.

So you say "darry" instead of "dairy" Talk about people SEPARATED by a common language. I don't even know how one gets "darry" (double consonant after a vowel shortens the vowel), from "air".

Other way around. All of those words in American English have the "air" sound.

Listening to the examples that Alidar Jerok linked, there was no "air" anywhere to these ears. They were all short "e" sounds

 

[RoJoHen]

Then I don't know what your "air" sounds like.

 

[Canadave]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English ?

That pronunciation of "fairy" sounds like "ferry" (as in boat).
THe "Carry" one sounds like the name "Kerry". Nothing like darry or dairy.

See, to me, "Kerry" and "dairy" still rhyme.

 

[RoJoHen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English ?

That pronunciation of "fairy" sounds like "ferry" (as in boat).
THe "Carry" one sounds like the name "Kerry". Nothing like darry or dairy.

See, to me, "Kerry" and "dairy" still rhyme.

Same here. I'm so confused.

 

[Gepard]

I heard almost no difference between the linked Australian and American examples. What are we disagreeing about, again?

 

[RoJoHen]

Yeah. I heard some very subtle differences, but I feel like when you would actually use the words in conversation, they'd all sound similar enough that it wouldn't matter.

Either way, in America, we say them all the same.

 

[Trilliam]

Next, you'll be telling me that you can't hear the difference between Aus, NZ and SA.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I heard almost no difference between the linked Australian and American examples. What are we disagreeing about, again?

That's because the link isn't from a place with the mary, marry, merry merger. I was pointing out it wasn't a US-Australia divide. My bored youtube surfing at this time suggests there are two predominant areas on the east coast that have resisted this merger and they are Philly and New York (that and the resistance to the caught-cot merger are probably the only things they have in common). This is somewhat descriptive, skip ahead to about 1:32. I think he's playing up the Os a bit there.

I'll find someone that merges them.

 

[RoJoHen]

No idea. I mean, I heard the differences, but they're not dramatic enough for me to consider them separate sounds. Merry sounds like Marry sounds like Mary.

It's not like if I said, "I am getting married," you wouldn't understand the sentence if I pronounced it "merried."