How do you pronounce words?

[Redwing]

"Mary, merry, marry"is one of the standard dialect differential things. There are all sorts of variations.

One survey of Americans found that

•all 3 are the same (56.88%)
•all 3 are different (17.34%)
•Mary and merry are the same; marry is different (8.97%)
•merry and marry are the same; Mary is different (0.96%)
•Mary and marry are the same; merry is different (15.84%)
   
Here is one suggestion of how it sounds when you pronounce them differently

Marry: Harry, carry. (Short vowel as in fat, cat.)
Merry: berry, Terry (Short vowel as in get, wet.)
Mary: hairy, fairy (Long vowel as in air, bear.)

All those words sound the same to me. 

Me too (Great Lakes native)

Ditto, northwest PA native.

Me, too.  Northern Illinois

[Mental Magpie]

Marry:  should sound similar to the first syllable of carriage
Mary: Should rhyme with dairy
Merry: should rhyme with sherry

None of these should rhyme with each other. 

All of them do    Well, carriage doesn't in its entirety, but the first syllable does.

[Redwing]

Here in the Midwest, it seems everyone will 'warsh' their clothes. I say 'wash'.

I've gotten in the habit of saying 'Wed-nes-day' so I could help my kids and DH learn how to spell it.

When someone says 'let me ax you a question,' I usually respond with, 'You're going to hatchet me a question?'

I was confused by 'crick' at first but everyone up here says it. It was always 'creek' to me.

I used to say 'segue' by pronouncing it 'seeg' until my brother said it's pronounced 'segway'. How was I to know, I'd only seen it in books. Same with the word 'dearth'. I thought it was pronounced 'darth' but he informed me it's 'durth'. Whoops.

I say 'cumin' either 'kuh-min' or 'kyoo-min' and have been corrected both ways.

Bloo, are you in Ohio?  My husband's Cincinnati born and raised family all said "warsh" and "crick".

[Micah]

How do Australians pronounce "lieutenant"?

LOO-ten-ant

[Diane AKA Traska]

Marry:  should sound similar to the first syllable of carriage
Mary: Should rhyme with dairy
Merry: should rhyme with sherry

None of these should rhyme with each other. 

All of them do    Well, carriage doesn't in its entirety, but the first syllable does.

See, if I had friends named Carrie, Mary, and Sherry, I would be intensely weirded out if their names rhymed.  Here in the Philly region, those are distinct sounds.

[bloo]

Here in the Midwest, it seems everyone will 'warsh' their clothes. I say 'wash'.

I've gotten in the habit of saying 'Wed-nes-day' so I could help my kids and DH learn how to spell it.

When someone says 'let me ax you a question,' I usually respond with, 'You're going to hatchet me a question?'

I was confused by 'crick' at first but everyone up here says it. It was always 'creek' to me.

I used to say 'segue' by pronouncing it 'seeg' until my brother said it's pronounced 'segway'. How was I to know, I'd only seen it in books. Same with the word 'dearth'. I thought it was pronounced 'darth' but he informed me it's 'durth'. Whoops.

I say 'cumin' either 'kuh-min' or 'kyoo-min' and have been corrected both ways.

Bloo, are you in Ohio?  My husband's Cincinnati born and raised family all said "warsh" and "crick".

Yep, NE Ohio and am waiting for my kids to fly the coop so that I can head down south. Can't take the cold too much longer. And everyone talks like me down there!.

[Mental Magpie]

Marry:  should sound similar to the first syllable of carriage
Mary: Should rhyme with dairy
Merry: should rhyme with sherry

None of these should rhyme with each other. 

All of them do    Well, carriage doesn't in its entirety, but the first syllable does.

See, if I had friends named Carrie, Mary, and Sherry, I would be intensely weirded out if their names rhymed.  Here in the Philly region, those are distinct sounds.

I'm from the opposite side of the state, so much so that it is approximately 10 miles from the Ohio border.

My mom is from the DuBois area, and she agrees with me; when she lived in Philly for college, she got a lot of weird looks for the way she pronounced things.

[guihong]

How do Australians pronounce "lieutenant"?

LOO-ten-ant

I thought it was loo-TENN-ant 

[jaxsue]

"Mary, merry, marry"is one of the standard dialect differential things. There are all sorts of variations.

One survey of Americans found that

•all 3 are the same (56.88%)
•all 3 are different (17.34%)
•Mary and merry are the same; marry is different (8.97%)
•merry and marry are the same; Mary is different (0.96%)
•Mary and marry are the same; merry is different (15.84%)
   
Here is one suggestion of how it sounds when you pronounce them differently

Marry: Harry, carry. (Short vowel as in fat, cat.)
Merry: berry, Terry (Short vowel as in get, wet.)
Mary: hairy, fairy (Long vowel as in air, bear.)

All those words sound the same to me. 

Me too (Great Lakes native)

I'm a Great Lakes native, too. 

[Slartibartfast]

This is a cool topic!

Aussies say the L in soldier. I just tried saying it out loud without the L and it sounded like the start of a question to me. "so d'ya know what ya doin' this weekend?"

Americans put the L in "soldier," too - but we ignore it in "solder," like what you do to affix two pieces of metal together 

[Ms_Cellany]

I recently realized that I pronounce "wasn't" as "waddint."

[Mental Magpie]

I recently realized that I pronounce "wasn't" as "waddint."

So does the Eagle; it drives nuts me.

[violinp]

I recently realized that I pronounce "wasn't" as "waddint."

I say "dudnt" for "doesn't"

[Ms_Cellany]

I recently realized that I pronounce "wasn't" as "waddint."

So does the Eagle; it drives nuts me.

It's a Texas accent thing. Goes along with "bidness" (business).

"So I waddint gone get involved; it's none of my bidness."

Molly Ivins used to use "bidnessman" in her writing.

[Mental Magpie]

I recently realized that I pronounce "wasn't" as "waddint."

So does the Eagle; it drives nuts me.

It's a Texas accent thing. Goes along with "bidness" (business).

"So I waddint gone get involved; it's none of my bidness."

Molly Ivens used to use "bidnessman" in her writing.

The Eagle is Texan...