merry/marry/mary in Merry Olde England

[Paul Johnston]

The story (besides showing variation in the 18th c.) could show
evidence for a Mary/merry merger in this highly rhotic area, which I
think, is borne out in later 19c. and early 20c. sources.  Marry
would probably not be affected here, as I'd expect /a/ (as in cat in
Devon) in this part of SW England.
In Devon, where Exeter is, traditionally, OE /y/ develops to /E/
(and /y:/ to /e:/, so you get leece, meece for lice, mice)--our Std
pronunciation and spelling comes from Southeastern areas like Kent or
SE Essex where the same thing happened.  The /er/ in Mary gets
lowered, as in most rhotic. dialects.
Carew, in getting at the judge who sentenced him, and in making a
pun, is already showing signs of the attitude that has prevailed ever
since toward SW British varieties--they are linked with pirates and
"zoider-drinkin varmers vrom Zummerzet (next door), ooo--arr" and are
the model for most British "hicks from the sticks" representations in
plays and movies.
I'm trying to think where you'd get the true 3-way merger in the UK.
Possibly Kent; possibly parts of Western Scotland like Glasgow, where
there is an /er/:/Er/ merger, and marry has historical /e/; maybe
parts of Ulster, where the Glasgow pattern might have been taken from.

n Jul 31, 2007, at 10:27 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      merry/marry/mary in Merry Olde England
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> Bampfylde-Moore Carew writes of the judge at Exeter who sentenced him
> in 1739 to be transported to Maryland:
>
> "The Chairman then told him, He must proceed to a hotter Country; he
> enquired in what Climate, and being told Merryland, he with great
> Composure made a critical Observation on the Pronounciation of that
> Word, implying that he apprehended it ought to be pronounced
> Maryland ...".
>
> [Wilkinson, "The King of the Beggars" (1931), either page 132 or 149.]
>
> Does this move the merry/marry borders?  :-)
>
> Joel
>
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