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

[Wilson Gray]

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 8:02 PM, David Wake <dwake at stanfordalumni.org> wrote:
> many speakers in the East Coast and in the South do not have the
> complete merger.
>
In the Southern BE of Marshall, TX, It's

Mary [merI], merry [mErI], marry [m&rI]

But, in Saint BE, it's

Mary, merry [mEri], marry [m&ri]

St. Louis joke from at least as early as the '50's:

It was a Christmas party and everybody was feeling merry. Till Mary
got mad and left.

Of course, the joke is spoken, not written. Buh chawl gnome sane.

-Wilson
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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