Here “bus” is pronounced like “buzz” and I didn’t realise it was weird until I went down to Devon and it was a dead giveaway that I’m a Brummie lol
I’m told there are differences between “merry”, “marry”, and “Mary”, but I don’t believe it.
My ex got so mad because down here the boy name Don and the girl name Dawn sound about the same. He would yell no it’s not it’s DAAHN and DWAWN! But we don’t have that nasal Midwestern thing, it’s just Don and Daun.
In my area, “Don” is pronounced with the mouth wide, jaw open. Force a smile as you say it, and you should be in the ballpark.
“Dawn” is pronounced with the lips pursed. Kiss your grandmother on the cheek.
Depends where you are. Most in the US pronounce them the same, but they are all distinct in Philly for example. But we pronounce “berry” and “bury” the same.
I’m from NJ and Murray, merry, marry, and Mary are all distinct.
Berry is like merry and bury is like Murray.
I’ve lived in Philly and then the suburbs for a couple of decades now and have never noticed the berry-bury thing - I’m guessing it’s a South Philly thing? So do you eat straw’bury’s or do you ‘berry’ your dead pets?
I’m also from NJ, but I would be pressed to hear the difference between Marry and Mary tbh. The rest are all distinct though!
But I’m also told, when people find out I’m from NJ (online people), that “You don’t sound like you’re from NJ” so idk.
I was born here, so simply I must sound like someone from NJ cause I am! Logic.
Interesting! I think central, north, and south Jersey all have some distinctions in accent. Plus I think a lot of people have a pretty stereotyped idea of what New Jerseyans are “supposed” to sound like haha
Oh yes, people absolutely have an idea of what we’re suppose to sound like!
Once I start cursing like a sailor they go “oh okay yeah you’re from NJ” lmfao. I don’t curse nearly as much in text.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_/r/
Yes I would say “bury” like “berry”
I grew up in North Philly and South Jersey
It’s listed under Merry Murray merger in the wiki link
Interesting!
I get the rest, but how is “Mary” different?
Mary rhymes with fairy
That’s how I pronounce it. So now I’m even more confused! How is “merry” different? Because I pronounce that just like Mary.
Merry is like “meh” + “ree”
Charlottesville Virginia has a road spelled Rio but locals pronounce it with a long I (rhy-oh). Bonus points, the name originated from the road being route 10, marked with signs that said R10, which eventually became Rio.
NY state has a town named Chili that is pronounced—I kid you not—with two long I’s. “Chai-lai”
There’s also a town named Charlotte pronounced “shar-LOT”.
I feel like these are tests to detect out-of-towners.
My kid got a worksheet on the long A sound. She got through most of them but was stumped on the “lobster”. I looked at it - Lobster, Crawfish, neither of those have a long A sound, what the heck?
Hours later it occurs to me.
OH, Craaay-fish? Who in the world calls them that? Nobody here. Where was this printed?
As I live in the south I hear my “how are you all doing” morphing into “howya’lldoin” and there’s nothing I can do to stop it
Do you reply with “Fon” now? (How southerners pronounce “fine”).
Shades of Jeff Foxworthy and his southern words.
How do you pronounce oil?
I can never tell if my partner says gem or Jim. She had a moment the other day listening to her dad and looked at me and said holy shit this is what I sound like to you. She hadnt seen him in a bit
Try switching to “how dost ye doeth?”
Melbourne.
Now most will read that and go Mel bourn. But in Australia we say Mel Bin.
A really easy way to tell if someone isn’t an Aussie while there.
Old gen x Australian here, and pretty much everybody I know pronounces it Mel burn.
I pronounced it like “Mel-born” until an Australian person corrected me lol. it’s like Gloucestershire but in Australia!
Gloss-ter-sher?
yup like gloss ter sheer
Just guessing, is that pronounced gloushtisher?
Is there a similar “tell” with how people pronounce Darwin?
It’s ironic Aussies don’t pronounce the R in Melbourne considering you add Rs to every other word!
They used them all up
To pass as local I say the Mel part clearly and mumble bu or bun at random, depending on the mood. So MELBu
But the real test is all the mumbling variations of Straya, AUSTRAia, etc
I haven’t lived there in a while and I don’t pronounce it that way anymore, but where I grew up, water is universally pronounced “wooder”.
You from NJ?
Yep.
My wife thinks it’s funny that most words with a “t” in the middle, I pronounce as "d"s… Butter is budder, better is bedder, water is wooder, etc…
Also, creeks are “cricks”.
Oddawa? Torono?
Is the thing on top of a house called a roof or a ruff?
Lol, I’m here sounding it out and it sounds between ruff and woof…
The creek/crick thing is very regional even within New Jersey.
Crayon: crown
Caramel: CAR-mul
Pecan: peh-CAWN
Got any cricks nearby?
So you pronounce crayon like a kings hat/ tooth repair?
Yes. It’s not very common and seems to occur where regional differences merge.
True, I’m just used to hearing either Cray-on or Cran (like cranberries)
Also I know I struggle with colors sometimes… But I don’t see green or yellow on that map, just red and blue… Is that just me haha
Green is in the northwest corner of Wisconsin.
Yellow is honestly a terrible color choice for this map, because the pronunciation isn’t truly regional. I think it’s clustered along the edges of a few different red areas, mostly on the east coast and some Southern areas.
I actually think the author’s note about it being a merging of pronunciation makes sense, because I was raised in a transitional Southern dialect but my parents both have an east Midland dialect
Ah yes, the coloring company, crow-la
Boston accents are funny. When my mother says, “where are the cah-keys”. My dad and I always say, “your car keys or khakis?”
We recently moved to a new area and there is a nearby town called Monticello. The locals all pronounce it mon-tee-sell-oh and will correct you if you say mon-teh-chel-oh. Doesn’t quite fit the question cause I think the locals are insane for that 😅
Spaniards: Montitheyo
Elemen-tary or documen-tary
The tary pronounced like Terry. Apparently this is unusual outside of this region.
What region? I’m pretty sure that’s standard.
Central New York. I’ve been called out on it many times by people from other places.
Both the US and UK pronunciations on this site are different from how we say it here. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/elementary
I’m from South Jersey, and that’s how most people pronounce those words there.
So … how else would you say it ?
El a men tree
Doc you men tree
I also hear “el a men her ee” a lot.
I’ve noticed some people say “document-tree” now that I think about it.
Where I live it’s more like as you described but not quite “terrrry” but “Tuh-ree” ?
i doubt many people actually say it like the er in Terry. Deemphsized syllables like that tend to get the schwa.
“Militree”
But where do you put the emphasis?
Most people pronounce it doc-you-MEN-teh-ree. Are you saying you pronounce it doc-you-men-TERRY?
I think it would be closest to say that the emphasis is on both the men and the tary. I wish we could post audio clips on here, I’d just record myself saying it. Doc-u-MEN-TARY.
It’s “Zed” not “Zee”
Fellow member of the zed crowd!! When someone says “zee” to mean zed it often sounds like they’re saying the letter c lol
Everyone knows the song goes “ex, why, zed. Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with med”
The song was written by an American so understandable that they’d do it with the wrong pronunciation.
“X, Y, Z, now I know my alphabet so I can keep it in my clever head”
wait that’s supposed to rhyme with the Z? It rhymes with the ‘me’ so it seems like it doesn’t need to rhyme with the Z
I said I know my ABCs, I didn’t say I know how to structure children’s songs. Next you’re going to expect me to be able to work AND be sober at the same time, SHEESH!
Say Jay-Z
Jay-Z
I lived in Louisville, KY briefly, and the official pronunciation is apparently “Luuhwuuhh”. You will be mocked if you get it wrong.
Not “loovul”? I need to brush up.
For some reason almost every person in my city says “seen” where they should say “saw”. Drives me bananas.
Same here except it sounds like “sin” instead of “seen” like “I sin a guy at the shop today”
Semmel
Port Dalhousie (dal-oo-sy) in St Catherine’s. When it should be port (Dal-how-sy)
It’s apparently the only thing named for that dude pronounced that way too, Dalhousie University as an example. Wiki page has an etymology section that has some suggestions as to why, it’d sound weird to me though pronounced the other way.
