Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl
Beverly Flanigan
flanigan at OHIO.EDU
Sat Jul 22 01:07:32 UTC 2006
I missed the start of this, but I assume the word is "barrel"? In which
case, maybe we have the near-merger Labov talks about in Philadelphia and
environs whereby Mary, merry, marry, and Murray all have the schwar sound
(i.e. rhyme with Murray)? He has a perception test using Upper Merion and
"Murray in" as near-rhymes. I've also heard 'were' and 'where' as
near-homophones, both with the 'Murray' sound.
Beverly
At 03:20 PM 7/21/2006, you wrote:
>I, of Salt Lake City but edjicated, say "berr'-uhl".
>
>
>
>--- "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
>
> > Do we have another "merry, Mary, marry"? Various
> > television
> > personalities (are news readers and weather mappers
> > "personalities"?)
> > in the Northeast are saying
> >
> > beh-ril (like "trill")
> > burr'uhl (like "mull") --many speakers
> > and
> > burl (as in Ives the folk singer)
> >
> > Are these regional? (I, of New York City but
> > educated, say "beh-ril").
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >
>------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society -
> > http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>James D. SMITH |If history teaches anything
>South SLC, UT |it is that we will be sued
>jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com |whether we act quickly and decisively
> |or slowly and cautiously.
>
>__________________________________________________
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
>http://mail.yahoo.com
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list