this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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[–] klu9@piefed.social 41 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Pro-tip in case you're unsure:

  • "Mary" is pronounced "Mary".
  • "Merry" is pronounced "merry".
  • "Marry" is pronounced "marry".

You're welcome.

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)
  • Mary rhymes with fairy.
  • Merry rhymes with berry.
  • Marry rhymes with carry.
[–] Zorcron@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe this is a whoosh on my part, but for people who pronounce all the Mary’s the same, they tend to pronounce all of those words to rhyme as well.

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

~~So ferry rhymes with fairy?~~

Edit: Is ferry is pronounced the same as fairy?

[–] Thisiswritteningerman@midwest.social 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I meant to ask "Is ferry is pronounced the same as fairy?"

[–] AEsheron@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I think it's part and parcel with the Mary merry marry merger. It's not just about those 3 words, but those 3 sounds.

[–] Zorcron@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

In my dialect, yes.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 14 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I’m from the green zone but it should be blue honestly. Where even is the blue on this map?

[–] Prove_your_argument@piefed.social 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

You can't see it because this is a photo from a book that was released back in like 2013 with a ton of various images that more better utilized the colors.

Example:
h7Hmsr3uUOGcue9.jpg

OP's image must have been stolen and reuploaded again and again and again to get us where we are today.

[–] dmention7@midwest.social 2 points 4 months ago

Not just that, there is a neat quiz that tries to predict where you are from, based on how you pronounce various words!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html

(I see that it is now behind a paywall... 😞)

[–] not_woody_shaw@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Why is blue in the key when there's no blue on the map?

[–] snooggums@piefed.world 3 points 4 months ago

Probably a city that is too hard to make out with so few pixels. I would assume Boston, because it would be Boston.

Or maybe they included it because some areas have marry pronounced differently, but forgot to include one for Mary being pronounced differently.

[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There's a tiny community in Wisconsin that has the Delco accent. It's there.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] shnizmuffin@lemmy.inbutts.lol 1 points 4 months ago

It's spelled wooder.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 8 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It drove me crazy when I first moved out of New Jersey and heard so many people "mispronouncing" vowels like this. See also "pen" pronounced as "pin", "Laura" and "Lara" being pronounced the same, etc. The "e" to "i" vowel shift in particular has become extremely prominent throughout much of the US.

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Going to school in NJ, I had a teacher whose first name was "Dawn" and she hated it. I didn't understand, I thought it was a pretty name.

But then I grew up, left the state, and wondered why everyone referred to the morning as "don." That's when it all clicked (or, you could say, it dawned on me.) Other states don't pronounce the "aw" part, making "Dawn" and "Don" sound the same. In New Jersey, they are distinct. Now I see why having that name could be upsetting.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 4 months ago

That one, especially, has also driven me crazy. That poor woman.

[–] sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

How the hell do you pronounce pin different from pen

[–] YellaLeber@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 months ago

It scares me to learn someone pronounces them the same...

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Can anyone from Philly or Jersey or Mass. actually explain this with IPA or something?

The rest of us are genuinely baffled as to how ya'll are doing this.

Don't make me post the Pam 'they're the same' meme.

[–] klemptor@startrek.website 5 points 4 months ago

I'm from NJ and these are all different sounds to me. This short shows the difference: https://youtube.com/shorts/S3EaMZUXQYs

[–] Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Ok so not native speaker but lived in Rhode Island for a long while. Here's what I hear:

ˈmeəɹi, ˈmæɹi, and ˈmɛɹi as in Mary, Marry, and merry. Longish a, short a, short e.

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Mary–marry–merry merger

~~Geoff Lindsey on YouTube might have a video on the topic. He's great at explaining phonetics of modern English.~~ Lindsey mentions the merger here, but only very briefly.

[–] Cargon@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

As someone from a red area, how tf are these pronounced differently?

[–] paranoid@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

TIL that the greatest state in the union knows how to correctly pronounce three distinctly different words...

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 7 points 4 months ago

I think we can all agree that Ohio sucks. Pic unrelated.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 5 points 4 months ago

His name is...

img

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Mary, Marry, Merry, and Maurry are all pronounced the same when I say them.

It really annoys Maurry. 😈

[–] kdcd@sh.itjust.works 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Can confirm as someone from Massachusetts I pronounce all three differently

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Why does one state reject homonyms?