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

[Paul Johnston]

There's a number of things going on with "bury", which had OE y, a
front rounded vowel in most dialects.  The <u> spellings in ME
reflect, depending on who you talk to, either a retention of the OE
value or (according to Roger Lass), a backing to /U/; the <i, y>
spellings reflect a value like /I/ in pin, which is what you could
expect if everything developed regularly.  In Kentish ME, as in
Kentish OE, /y/ > /E/.  The modern pronunciation with /E/ reflects
this Kentish value, while the BURR-Y pronunciation could be from
either of the other two values (cf. first, also with OE y, and turn,
with /U/.)

Berry= burrow comes from OE beorg, and is regularly developed (as OE
eo > /E/ ) and you'd expect the g to become /i/ in this position.

Paul Johnston

On Feb 19, 2007, at 8:16 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: BURR-Y is not 'non-standard' (was Eggcorn?)
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> ---------
>
> 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??
>
> "Ber(r)y" for "burrow" surivived into the 17th century. Do those
> who make the "bury"/"berry" distinction do so for the stress-
> reduced syllables in "Canterbury" vs. "loganberry"?
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________________
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 07:43:52 EST
>> From: RonButters at AOL.COM
>> Subject: BURR-Y is not 'non-standard' (was Eggcorn?)
>>
>> In a message dated 2/15/07 1:35:30 PM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
>> writes:
>>
>>> a footnote: i pronounce "bury" to rhyme with "curry" rather than
>>> "Terry" -- yes, i know this is non-standard . . . .
>
>>>
>> The "curry" pronunciation is certainly not "non-standard" in those
>> regions where it is standard. That is to say, this is a
>> regionalism, and in such respectable places as New Jersey the most
>> educated of speakers pronounce BURY as if it were etymologically
>> related to Aaron Burr.
>>
>> Are there any words other than BURY that are spelled -UR- but have
>> the -E- vowel in any standard variety of American English? It
>> seems to me that the ''berry'' pronunciation of BURY is the
>> excentric one, spellingwise. FURY HURRY MURRY JURY as well as
>> CURRY ...
>
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