BURR-Y is not 'non-standard' (was Eggcorn?)

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Feb 19, 2007, at 5:16 AM, Charlie Doyle wrote:

> It should be mentioned that vowels before /r/, historically, have
> been flexible. The spelling "murie" for "merry" was very prevalent
> through the 14th century (alternating with "myrie" and "mirie").
> About the time of the GVS (though not necessarily because of it!),
> the spelling "merry" gained prominence and eventually predominated.
> Now we have the famous "merry"/"Mary"/"marry" paradigm; ARE there
> speakers who might add "Murray" to the mix??

my mother had "Murredith" for "Meredith" and similarly in some other
trisyllables (which i can't now recall, though i wrote them down many
many years ago).

arnold

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