Dueling dialects

[Ed Keer]

> You bring up, I believe, the issue of pre-rhotic
> front non-high vowel
> neutralization vs. differentiation, which is
> certainly not constant
> across European-American dialects.  As a duellist
> who happens to hail
> from NYC, I maintain the classical 3-way
> distinction:  Mary [e],
> merry [E], marry [ae].  -arry names like "Barry" or
> "Harry" (I could
> never understand those "Harry"/"hairy" puns) have
> the [ae] vowel of
> "bat".


No way, the classical 3-way distinction was: Mary [e],
merry [@], marry [ae]. Any other pronunciation is
barbaric :)

Ed (from SE PA/Philly)



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