The magistrate said "Merry", the defendant said "Mary"

[David Wake]

Many Brits assume that "Maryland" is pronounced as though it were two
words  "Mary Land", with successive SQUARE, happY and TRAP vowels
(with the last syllable having secondary stress).  Since Brits have
split Mary/marry/merry, this sounds very different from the actual
pronunciation to be heard from Maryland natives.

When I arrived fresh off the plane to grad school and my roommate told
me he was from (what sounded to me like) "Marilyn", I had no idea what
he was talking about.

David




On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 7:17 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      The magistrate said "Merry", the defendant said "Mary"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Upon his conviction in 1739 for roguery, the magistrate sentenced
> Bampfylde-Moore Carew to transportation to "Merryland".  According to
> Carew, he informed the justice that "he apprehended it ought to be
> pronounced 'Maryland'."  (Aside from a dialectical comment, obviously
> Carew might have been contending that the life of a transported felon
> in Maryland would not be merry.)
>
> Is Bristol west of the Hudson, and the place where Carew grew up,
> "the parish of Brickley [or Bickley?], near Tiverton, in the county
> of Devon," east of the Hudson?  :-)  Actually, I find that Tiverton
> is *west* of Bristol.
>
> Joel
>
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