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

[David Wake]

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Dan Goodman <dsgood at iphouse.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goodman <dsgood at IPHOUSE.COM>
> Subject:      Re: The magistrate said "Merry", the defendant said "Mary"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> David Wake wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       David Wake <dwake at STANFORDALUMNI.ORG>
>> Subject:      Re: The magistrate said "Merry", the defendant said "Mary"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 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.
>>
>>
> Did Brits (and Americans who pronounce two or all of these differently)
> split the sound, or did people who pronounce them all the same merge them?
>
> --
> Dan Goodman
> "I have always depended on the kindness of stranglers."
> Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Expire
> Journal dsgood.dreamwidth.org (livejournal.com, insanejournal.com)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

The merger is an innovation.  All non-North American accents, to my
knowledge, have Mary/Marry/merry distinct.  Even within North America,
many speakers in the East Coast and in the South do not have the
complete merger.

Here's map from Labov (you may need to zoom in a bit):

http://books.google.com/books?id=qa4-dFqi6iMC&lpg=PA14&dq=labov%20mary%20marry%20merry&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=%22the%20great%20majority%20of%20North%20Americans%22&f=false

David

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