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PostPosted: Mon 01 Sep 2014 8:55 pm 
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Bríd Mhór wrote:
In parts of America they pronounce "Mary, marry, merry" the same. That must be confusing. :D

Yes, about 2/3 of American English speakers don't distinguish among those sounds (or don't do it very clearly, in some cases). The ones who do make a distinction (though not all of them in the same way) are mostly found in the areas of early settlement along the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, plus adjoining inland areas.

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PostPosted: Tue 02 Sep 2014 2:47 am 
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Location: Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA
I'll never forget the very first Irish instructional pamphlet I got (found in an antiques store in the late '70s)...it mentioned that one vowel sound was as in "nought" and the other was as in "not," and I'm going "but...but...they're the same sound!" :darklaugh:

And yes...in my area, we make little or no distinction between "Mary," "Marry," and "Merry."

Redwolf


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PostPosted: Mon 08 Sep 2014 6:31 pm 
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The popular Hugo "in 3 months" language learning series in the UK used to sell themselves on their "imitated pronunciation" system that made speaking "easier". The problem was, their symbol for schwa-like sounds was "er" as in "driver" -- taking a non-rhotic accent as a given. So when they brought out a Scottish Gaelic edition, the author said in the foreword that unlike other editions in the series, his book didn't use imitated pronunciation, as he didn't expect any of his readers to speak like that....

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