Happy Christmas vs. Merry Christmas

[Tom Zurinskas]

It's Merry Christmas and generically Happy Holidays in USA as far as I know.  Also Happy New Year.
Listening to some Christmas songs I hear pronunciation ~Krismus soemtimes, but mostly it's ~Krismis.

My favorite tongue twister: "Which wrist watches are Swiss wrist watches."

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL7+
see truespel.com phonetic spelling


>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Paul Frank
> Subject: Happy Christmas vs. Merry Christmas
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My wife, daughter, and I went to a Christmas Eve brunch today which
> was attended by a largish group of Americans, Canadians, Brits, Irish,
> and Australians. The Americans, Canadians, Irish, and Australians said
> Merry Christmas, and the Brits (English and Scots, in this case) said
> Happy Christmas. In the past few years, I've noticed that English
> people (or at least English expats here in Switzerland) tend to say
> Happy Christmas. But I seem to remember that when I lived in England
> some twenty years ago, most people I knew said Merry Christmas. This
> is all unscientific, unrepresentative, and subjective, but I am
> wondering if there is a difference between Brits and other English
> speakers in this respect. Is it correct to generalize that Brits these
> days tend to say Happy Christmas (But Merry Christmas and a Happy New
> Year) and Americans Merry Christmas?
>
> Merry Christmas!
>
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
> Translator
> Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
> Espace de l'Europe 16
> Neuchâtel, Switzerland
> mobile +41 79 957 5318
> paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
> paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
>
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