Beh-ril, burr'uhl, and burl

[Joel S. Berson]

If you distinguish them (as I do; I could hear the differences
between the pronunciations), why *isn't* it another "merry, Mary,
marry"?  Only because I need to have 3 (or 4) different words
semantically?  But you do (as I could have).

Joel

At 7/24/2006 03:09 PM, Mark wrote:
>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.]
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org