Do you pronounce "bury" to rhyme with "merry" or

[raccoon]

To rhyme with “Furry”?

As in, “I buried Paul.”

[samnsara]

1. i berried paul

[raccoon]

3. That's how I say it too. Nt

[dewsgirl]

5. Me as well.

[onecaliberal]

20. Me too.

[DonaldsRump]

27. Actually, closer to the real thing

that John Lennon said which was "cranberry sauce", not "I buried Paul"!

[sakabatou]

36. Same

[unblock]

2. And how do you pronounce "merry"? Where I come from,

"Merry", "Mary", and "marry" are all pronounced the same.

We kids drove my mom nuts with that

[raccoon]

4. You must be a time traveler from Shakespeare's time.

I thought they were the only people who pronounced those words alike.

[Ohiogal]

6. (raising hand)

I pronounce them all the same, too
Used to drive my college roommate from New Jersey nuts!

[unblock]

9. Bingo! Grew up in Ohio, mom grew up in New Jersey!

[unblock]

7. Could I be such at last, a traveler through time as time flies past,

Yet knowing not that such adventures be my lot?
Oh I'd be so merry to have the powers of a fairy
I'd give my all to unbury Paul!

[raccoon]

17. Good! Nt

[greymattermom]

31. I did when I was a kid in Kentucky

but I changed my accent to be more standard later. My sister has an accent that causes her to pronounce the name "Karen" as "Keeran". It's something Southern as she has lived in Kentucky and Atlanta.

[saidsimplesimon]

11. Where I'm from, picture

is pronounced the same as pitcher.

[The King of Prussia]

29. And where I'm from

A bear is something you drink - possibly from a pitcher.

[saidsimplesimon]

35. The British Jack for

The King? My roots include poor British indentured servants and slaves. Language dialects are all over the map. (pun intended)

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Ummm ... I've never heard them pronounced differently -- by ANYBODY.

I'd be real interested in knowing what those supposed alternative pronunciations are.

[unblock]

30. According to my mother, the "correct" (I.e., New Jersey) pronunciations are

Mary rhymes with dairy
Marry has the a from hat
Merry has the e from let

[sl8]

33. Audio; Wikipedia article.

From Wikipedia article, English-language vowel changes before historic /r/

Audio:
Mary–marry–merryc

[sl8]

32. From Harvard Dialect Survey:

From https://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_15.html

15. How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?
a. all 3 are the same (56.88%)
b. all 3 are different (17.34%)
c. Mary and merry are the same; marry is different (8.97%)
d. merry and marry are the same; Mary is different (0.96%)
e. Mary and marry are the same; merry is different (15.84%)
(11422 respondents)


All Results




Choice a: all 3 are the same




Choice b: all 3 are different




Choice c: Mary and merry are the same; marry is different




Choice d: merry and marry are the same; Mary is different




Choice e: Mary and marry are the same; merry is different

[Jake Stern]

8. Started out pronouncing it "berry"

but moved to pronouncing it "burry" over time.

[targetpractice]

10. NYT Regional Dialect Quiz (very interesting)...

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

If you encounter a paywall, paste the link into an Incognito (Chrome) or Private (Safari) window.

[hlthe2b]

12. I apparently baffled it. (I've moved around so much and lived/worked/visited nearly every state)

So, it apparently couldn't process... LOL

[Cirque du So-What]

13. What about 'birry'?

That's how I pronounce it.

[geardaddy]

14. Merry

[jalan48]

15. Like-I was walking in the grass and got burried?

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. down here in some of the Southern dialects, it's " We burred Paul".

People outside the South do not realize there are many southern "accents".

[GeorgeGist]

18. Merry ...

funereal.

[Iggo]

19. That's a trick question.

I don't know what happened to Paul.

I was never at that party.

[MrsCoffee]

25. Lol.

[3catwoman3]

21. "Berry."

Regional pronunciation differences fascinate me.

[elleng]

22. merry

[A HERETIC I AM]

23. It's spelled "Bury" but it's pronounced "Throat Warbler Mangrove"

[mr_lebowski]

26. You're in the service of a villain, Billy Shears!

Daedsiluap!

[rainy]

28. When reading my mind says burried

When speaking I say berried

[crazycatlady]

34. I sometimes do

But I generally pronounce 'berry' (as in the fruit) to rhyme with merry (as in Christmas)

Sometimes I pronounce it more like Barry.

This opens up the Mary/marry/merry debate again.