I'll take pronunciation for 800, Alex

[ColeMarie86]

Pop! :)

Also, ask for a Coke here and you will get Coca Cola. Ask for soda, we'll assume you mean soda pop.

[Geechee Girl]

Awww yeah, time to get my IPA out.

I'm from Northern England, and they are all pronounced very differently for me:

Merry = [mɛɹi]

Mary = [mɛəɹi]

Marry = [mæɹi]

(yes I know how this looks to the uninitiated, but I'm overexcited about phonetics being mentioned on FJ)

I found my peeps! I'm a budding linquistics major, born & raised in the South. We say merry-mary-marry as you've noted in IPA. Our language area was non-rhotic when I was coming up, but not so much with the younger generation.

I've also noticed in southern California, fill=feel and hill=heel.

[Miggy]

Next question ... whose English can you understand?

Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, UK & Ireland are all easy for me to listen to and understand. (Scottish grandparents and Yorkshire friends have meant that since childhood I've been exposed to some of the more extreme UK accents and don't really notice them.)

The USA is another story. What I think of as "White - Hollywood" is fine. "Black - Hollywood" I find difficult. Will Smith & Jada Pinkett are the only black actors I can think of that I don't have to concentrate to understand. The missionaries we get here from Utah are all pretty easy to understand but my students like to mimic the way they say things because they think it is hilarious. The Texans I've known (not many) have been ok but, like "Black-Hollywood", I do have to concentrate. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia & Florida could be speaking another language as I hear it. I like watching Swamp People just to play the game of trying to work out what they are saying. If I seriously want to know, I have to turn on the subtitles. I miss a lot of words when listening to the Bates family but can use context to fill the gaps. I find different family members speak quite differently though. Gil is always easy, Erin is always hard, everyone else fits in between. The Duggar accent grates on my nerves but I understand them. The Maxwell family are easy.

I'll pick on my own speech before I post this: typical country but not bogan accent. I DO NOT SOUND LIKE STEVE IRWIN! Think more along the lines of a slightly lazy Cate Blanchett or Guy Pierce. I do say G'day every time I greet someone.

[SportsgalAnnie]

Where I'm from we call soft drinks by their Brand Names

( Mountain Dew was first made and sold in My Hometown despite what Knoxville says :lol: )

[JHeathen]

I live in the tri-state area, and Ben is pronounced like the word "been".

Ben-Jah-Men

Another weird dispute that depends on where you live is the soda/pop/coke debate. I say soda.

Uhmmm...which three states are you referring to? I'm from NYC, and the "tri-state area" to me is NJ, NY, and CT. :lol:

[DaRealMVP]

I wanna play!

Okie here.

Ben/bin = pronounced differently

Pen/pin = pronounced differently.

Marry/merry/Mary = pronounced the same.

I used to say "soda", but I somehow transitioned to pop. I seriously don't know where it came from.

If someone asked me to say those words, I would pronounced all of them differently. However, if one overheard me speaking to friends, I would probably pronounce them all the same lol. Strangely for me, Adrian/Adrienne have different pronunciations.

For different things that I've heard: my grandma says "chil-run" (children). My mother's first language is German. She says "letters" for lettuce, "leiter" for ladder, "al-oo-mean-ee-um" for aluminum.

[carebaer]

This thread reminds me of this quiz: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013 ... .html?_r=0

(fun for US readers anyway)

I know the difference between pen & pin and can pronounce them "correctly" but usually say pen for both. (So I can also hear Ben vs Bin but don't notice without it being pointed out).

I still haven't figured out how Mary and Marry are pronounced differently and hope someday to hear that. Merry is different but Merry Christmas said dramatically is the same as Mary.

Dad says "Missourah," too. And "Calla-radda" for Colorado. But he's pretty old, 85 in a couple of months. I lived in CO for a few years as a CA transplant; apparently old-timers say "Colla-raddo" but transplants say "Colla-rah-do." I try to say it the old way now, because I see something similar with Nevada, and I'm on the "Nevadda" side for NV. "Nevahda" sounds pompous to me. :lol:

I wrote this novel for you because our families seem to have a similar migratory heritage. :D

My grandma had random weird pronunciations so when my dad's cousin moved to Nevada, MO I thought that was another one of her words. Then my dad did it and was like "huh?" until he explained that it was a city and was actually pronounced differently than the state.

[halcionne]

This thread reminds me of this quiz: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013 ... .html?_r=0

(fun for US readers anyway)

I know the difference between pen & pin and can pronounce them "correctly" but usually say pen for both. (So I can also hear Ben vs Bin but don't notice without it being pointed out).

I still haven't figured out how Mary and Marry are pronounced differently and hope someday to hear that. Merry is different but Merry Christmas said dramatically is the same as Mary.

My grandma had random weird pronunciations so when my dad's cousin moved to Nevada, MO I thought that was another one of her words. Then my dad did it and was like "huh?" until he explained that it was a city and was actually pronounced differently than the state.

That was a fun quiz and the software guessed my location pretty accurately! Crawdad gave me away--I had no idea how local that one is.

[Coco]

That was a fun quiz and the software guessed my location pretty accurately! Crawdad gave me away--I had no idea how local that one is.

My family calls them crawdads too, but maybe only because our close neighbors were from Louisiana. Their little boy used to catch them in the ditch and call them Shrawdads. :lol:

[Coco]

Yep, that is true here. When I said above that strong Okie accents are considered less educated I wanted to say low class but held back. They are considered low class, used by people,who love the state fair. I happen to love the fair but some people here look down on fair goers.

In politicians strong Okie accents just seem like pandering to me.

I have a fondness for Okie accents, the way my educated Okie friends speak. Distinct but at the same time soft. It's the easy 'y'all come back now' kind of accent. More like the mom in The Help (Jackson Miss.) than the twangy Beverly Hillbillies. They have a busy small town lifestyle: college graduates, very involved in the school and business community. My friend calls her kids 'chilluns' and things like that but she does it tongue in cheek. Not sure this description of the way they speak is making a lick of sense. :lol: When i talk to them I start speaking Okie.

i totally agree, Roscoe and Boss Hog accents on politicians are grating. :lol:

[alba]

Awww yeah, time to get my IPA out.

I'm from Northern England, and they are all pronounced very differently for me:

Merry = [mɛɹi]

Mary = [mɛəɹi]

Marry = [mæɹi]

(yes I know how this looks to the uninitiated, but I'm overexcited about phonetics being mentioned on FJ)

Mr Alba's Scottish and he pronounces these similarly to how you do. Then there's that Mary Mac song:

Mary Mac's mother's making Mary Mac marry me,

My mother's making me marry Mary Mac.

I think I'll marry Mary for I ken she will take care of me,

'Twill all be mac and merry when I marry Mary Mac.

Ah, I hadn't remembered the middle t vs. d sound issue. It's one of the big distinctions between British and North American English. In Canada, writer still pronounces the t like a d, but the i sounds more like "aye-ee" than a simple long i.

Okay, Southern Ontarian here, and I'm *convinced* that middle T sounds distinct from a D in my native accent. It's more clipped. I certainly sound different saying "water" than Mr Alba does when he teases me with "wadder" :P Course, he also insists that the capital of Ontario has a second T in it, and that's, of course, ridiculous.

[garciarodrigez]

Oh man. I love this conversation. My speech over the years has been made fun of so I have to chime in.

I was born, raised, and will probably die in Northern Ohio. However, generations of my maternal and paternal family are from Kentucky. Boy howdy. Lol. Each generation out loses more and more of the accent. My own kids don't have one.

To hear the old

timers and even myself in casual conversation at times, I'd say we'd sound uneducated and lazy. It's just tomato/tomato to me. More precisely maters to maters. Lol.

Here's some things I've been corrected for saying wrong according to some over the years.

Ben=bee-in

(said as two syllable word)

Pen/pin=pee-in

gym/Jim=g-em

washer=worsher

egg=ayge

milk=me-ilk

pillow=puh-low

Vienna=vi-eeny

Lol. there's more but I think you get it.

[Miggy]

My family calls them crawdads too, but maybe only because our close neighbors were from Louisiana. Their little boy used to catch them in the ditch and call them Shrawdads. :lol:

Ok, I tried the quiz to see where inland NSW, Aus might match up to in the USA. I got Providence (due to my use of bubbler), Jersey City & New York (both due to my use of sneakers). All meaningless of course but fun anyway.

[Cassielfsw]

Ok, I tried the quiz to see where inland NSW, Aus might match up to in the USA. I got Providence (due to my use of bubbler), Jersey City & New York (both due to my use of sneakers). All meaningless of course but fun anyway.

I tried to take the quiz but when I got to the end it said an error has occurred and wouldn't show me my map. :(

One of the questions asked about the word "aunt". I grew up saying "ant" (like the insect) but my husband and his family say "awnt". My husband's brother and his wife have spawned, so now begins the campaign to get my nephew and in-laws to call me "ant Cassie" and not "awnt Cassie". :p

[Cassielfsw]

Finally got the map to work. Apparently saying "kitty-corner" is a Seattle/Portland thing? Uh, not even remotely close.

Chicago is the correct color on the map, though, even though they failed to guess it as the correct answer.

[Maggie Mae]

Here's one: when I moved out west, I had a lot of annoyance and confusion with a coworker who refused to say someone name correctly, instead pronouncing "Dawn" as "Don"... Took me a while before I realized that coworker literally didn't hear the difference that is so obvious to me. She also added Rs to words. where there is no "r" and no reason to have or add an "r" sound (e.g. Warrrshington, warrshing machine.)

Also southern dialect and "oil." I've always thought it was more of an "oiy-yell," (that's super exaggerated btw) vs "ohl."

[19 cats and counting]

This thread reminds me of this quiz: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013 ... .html?_r=0

(fun for US readers anyway)

I know the difference between pen & pin and can pronounce them "correctly" but usually say pen for both. (So I can also hear Ben vs Bin but don't notice without it being pointed out).

I still haven't figured out how Mary and Marry are pronounced differently and hope someday to hear that. Merry is different but Merry Christmas said dramatically is the same as Mary.

My grandma had random weird pronunciations so when my dad's cousin moved to Nevada, MO I thought that was another one of her words. Then my dad did it and was like "huh?" until he explained that it was a city and was actually pronounced differently than the state.

That quiz pinpoints me to the largest city in the county I grew up in (and the MAJOR city just south of my county).

Funny thing is that any form of accent from the area was corrected out of me as a kid. I won't name the area but if I pronounced the word dog with more than one syllable (as is the norm in the area) I was corrected until I got it right (my parents are not from the area).

Eta-- Ben and Bin are completely different

Ben-- rhymes with men

Bin-- rhymes with win

[Cheetah]

Funny thing is that any form of accent from the area was corrected out of me as a kid. I won't name the area but if I pronounced the word dog with more than one syllable (as is the norm in the area) I was corrected until I got it right (my parents are not from the area).

Eta-- Ben and Bin are completely different

Ben-- rhymes with men

Bin-- rhymes with win

Wait, there's somewhere where they say 'dog' with 2 syllables??? How does that work? Doh-ohg?

BTW, anyone here from greater Pittsburgh area? My mom was from there. She got rid of most of that accent when she moved away but her family had some pretty funny words... things like warsh instead of wash, pronouncing the supermarket chain Giant Eagle like Giant Iggle, and my mom still says bataytas instead of potatoes, although I don't know if that's a Pittsburgh thing or just her.

[16strong]

Pen and pin sound exactly the same to me. Of course, I come from the land where every carbonated beverage, including Pepsi, is a Coke. Ex. "What kind of Coke would you like?" "Pepsi, please."

[19 cats and counting]

Wait, there's somewhere where they say 'dog' with 2 syllables??? How does that work? Doh-ohg?

BTW, anyone here from greater Pittsburgh area? My mom was from there. She got rid of most of that accent when she moved away but her family had some pretty funny words... things like warsh instead of wash, pronouncing the supermarket chain Giant Eagle like Giant Iggle, and my mom still says bataytas instead of potatoes, although I don't know if that's a Pittsburgh thing or just her.

Not really two syllables, but really drawn out. More like doow-ohg. Daughter has the same beginning. Giant city in the northeast US. A better word to use would be coffee (hard to type out the pronunciation, but I believe it's an old SNL skit).

When my sister was little there was a sentence in a kid's book that said " the dog ran over the log." She figured it was supposed to rhyme, but it wasn't making any sense to her because she was pronouncing dog in the (city) way as opposed to how the rest of the country says it. (She got log correct).

[grandmadugger]

So I thought this thread was a hoot until I started asking my headship how he said some of the words we've discussed. He's now convinced I can't talk. I took the quiz and it didn't give me where I currently live. It pegged me for Springfield, MO. Which culturally is right on target. I'll have to have him take the quiz.

[Snarkaluffagus]

I'm from the southeastern United States.

Benjamin = BEN-juh-min

Pen <> Pin

Do the Duggars say Jennifer or Jinnifer? I say JENN-i-fur. My DH (from a country South America) says JENN-ee-fur.

He gets his Js and Ys mixed up: yummy = jummy, jelly = yelly, etc.

[ClaraOswin]

I am taking the quiz now. Apparently no one else says "crayon" like me. Ha!

And no one says "beltway"...?! What the heck do people call it?

Oh my God...apparently no one talks like me AT ALL. No one says pill bug?!

I guess I have created my own dialect or something.

[PennySycamore]

We may have called those little bitty critters pill bugs in biology class. I know our professor wanted us to repeat the experiment we did for Research and Analysis with pill bugs instead of crickets and then to get our paper submitted for publication.

I was looking for the famous map of the regional differences with Americans' word for soda pop and could find quite what I was looking for, but did find this:Dialect maps showcase America's linguistic divides

I've noticed that Martha Stewart pronounces pecan either as pee-KAHN or p'Kahn which I'd think is rather unusual for a woman from northern New Jersey. I meant to listen to how she pronounced caramel today since the Martha Bakes episode was on caramel. Does she pronounce it with 2 syllables or three? To me, 2 sounds like a mis-pronunciation.

Here's one more link: All of Joshua Katz's dialect maps.

Dialect survey maps

I have to say that I LOVE Pittsburghese! It has so much character!

[Miggy]

Oh my God...apparently no one talks like me AT ALL. No one says pill bug?!

.

We call them 'slaters' in Aus. I had to google that one as I didn't recognise any of the names.