Merry, Mary, and Marry

Most Americans will say merry, Mary, and marry the same, but in some parts of the US - especially the northeast - and in many other countries, they each sound quite different!

Jim will introduce you to the variations that you can hear in a lot of different accents...

Here's a transcript of the video:

I want to talk to you about Merry, Mary, and Marry - otherwise known as Merry, Mary, and Marry. Yes.

So most Americans will actually say them almost all the same. So it actually becomes like this for this simple one: Merry. And that holds true going all the way down through them: Merry Mary got Married.

But some people in the US and many other countries including England will make a distinction between. This tends to happen a little bit more up towards New England up towards that Northeast and will happen in New York, for example. And you can hear some of this element in Philly. So it tends to happen in the East of the US, though you will also hear it in New Orleans, as well.

But one of the ways that it tends to be noted is people thinking of that same vowel here, but of a syllable break and a slightly stronger R that separates it, so that it becomes Merry Mary got - ma - married. Mad Cat Trap. That vowel.

One of the ways I actually like to think of it is thinking of this vowel slightly lowering. That's a diacritic for saying that it's lower in the mouth. So that you're drifting from here on your way down to /æ/. So that you say "Merry Mary got married." There you're making your way through those.

And in some accents, this ash very common. Say in New York and Philly, that ash can become really really flat and /æ/. If you think of Singin' in the Rain: "I can't stand it." That flatness of the ash sound may carry over into this, so that it becomes Marry. "You gonna get married"" Married. So that /æ/ that really strong flattening there.

You will hear this, for example, in other accents, like in England. And it will happen on words like Character, and on the man's name Harry. HARRY. As opposed to the fact that he has a lot of hair on him: Hairy Harry. That slight lowering. That sort of in between here.

And that Merry Mary got Married to Hairy Harry on a Ferry. Ahhh! There's your nightmare phrase.

We're working on the distinction between these.

You'll also end up with some other funky ones. Like it's really common in Philly for people to make Merry and the man's name Murray sound the same: "Merry Christmas Murray."

For more info on accents check out AccentHelp.com.