Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl

[Paul A Johnston, Jr.]

I assume Beryl would pttern like merry/Murray, though the final sonorant adds the monosyllabic option burl (which really struck me with some of the Weather Channel's commentators saying it).  I'm from New Jersey originally, so we'd probably have all 3 in  my state, the first in the North (as I say it, beh-rll, with syllabic /l/), the other two in the South of the state, where they talk about Amurican flags too, as in Philly.  Don't know about the distribution of option 2 vs. 3, but I'd think they'd have syllabic /l/ (if not variably vocalized /l/, as I do too) more often than not.

Paul Johnston

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
Date: Saturday, July 22, 2006 9:06 am
Subject: Re: Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl

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> ------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------
>
> Perhaps my reference to weather readers was too obscure, or else
> James Smith's mention of Salt Lake City--where I assume they have
> little interest in storms of the Atlantic Ocean--misled.  I meant
> tropical storm Beryl.
>
> Joel
>
> At 7/21/2006 09:07 PM, you wrote:
> >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
> >> >
> >> >
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