Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl

[Barnhart]

Would not the frontness of the vowels in merry, Mary, and marry and of
berl and barrel in contrast to the backness of the vowels (at least in my
speech) of burl and burrell account for the distribution?

Regards,
David



American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Monday, July 24, 2006
at 5:41 PM -0500 wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIO.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Same here.
>
>At 04:02 PM 7/24/2006, you wrote:
>>Merry, marry, and Mary sound alike to me.
>>
>>Beryl and barrel sound the same to me; but, burl and burrell are distinct
>>from the first two.  I'm not sure if I have a distinction between burl
>and
>>burrell.
>>
>>Regards,
>>David
>>
>>barnhart at highlands.com
>>
>>American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Monday, July 24,
>2006
>>at 3:09 PM -0500 wrote:
>> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> >-----------------------
>> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> >Poster:       "Mark A. Mandel" <mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU>
>> >Subject:      Re: Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ------
>> >
>> >If you're just asking about "Beryl", it isn't another "merry, Mary,
>> >marry",
>> >insofar as the 3M combo refers to words that are all distinct in some
>> >dialects but fall together in various combinations in others.
>> >
>> >Me, I distinguish them all, as well as
>> > - Beryl , with the same vowel as "merry"
>> > - barrel, like "marry"
>> > - Burl
>> > - Burrell (I think: distinct in my mind from "Burl", but my speech
>> >recognition software isn't treating them as different and on playback
>I'm
>> >not sure my production is either)
>> >
>> >-- Mark
>> >[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]
>> >
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>>
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>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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