How do you pronounce words?

[bansidhe]

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. 

Marry, Mary, Dairy, Merry, Sherry...yep, they all rhyme. 

[Kaora]

Scallops - scall rhymes with all and hall not Hal.  Hearing it wrong makes my ears itch.

Where we live, 'scoll-ups' are decorations on clothing as in 'a scalloped hem'.  'Skall-ups' are the delicious things you eat with shallots and butter. 

This brings up the pronunciation of 'gingham'.  Is the second 'g' pronounced as soft or hard?  Here, it's usually soft.

Definitely soft here.  GING-em, with initial G being hard.

Gingham Style?

[reflection5]

Jewelry (not jewry).

[SamiHami]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

[WillyNilly]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

How else would someone say jewelry? I've always heard it as joo-lurr-ee (jew-lr-y). Jewel-err-e sounds awkward to me, but thats the only alternative I can think of...

As for Mary, Marry, Merry - to me those are three distinct and different sounds, no where near rhyming (only Mary would rhyme with hairy, scary and dairy). Marry rhymes with carry and Larry, merry rhymes with berry and ferry.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

How else would someone say jewelry? I've always heard it as joo-lurr-ee (jew-lr-y). Jewel-err-e sounds awkward to me, but thats the only alternative I can think of...

As for Mary, Marry, Merry - to me those are three distinct and different sounds, no where near rhyming (only Mary would rhyme with hairy, scary and dairy). Marry rhymes with carry and Larry, merry rhymes with berry and ferry.

Two syllable version: jool-ree

[Bluenomi]

As for Mary, Marry, Merry - to me those are three distinct and different sounds, no where near rhyming (only Mary would rhyme with hairy, scary and dairy). Marry rhymes with carry and Larry, merry rhymes with berry and ferry.

I'm with you there, they are 3 completely different words. Marie is also different from all of them as well.

I've had people from the US tell me they think DD's name in horrid because it sounds like Hairy. Apparently Harry and Hairy are the same over there so Harriet turns into Hairy-et. No, it's a perfectly nice name if you say it right 

[SamiHami]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

How else would someone say jewelry? I've always heard it as joo-lurr-ee (jew-lr-y). Jewel-err-e sounds awkward to me, but thats the only alternative I can think of...

As for Mary, Marry, Merry - to me those are three distinct and different sounds, no where near rhyming (only Mary would rhyme with hairy, scary and dairy). Marry rhymes with carry and Larry, merry rhymes with berry and ferry.

I don't understand why one would prounounce it with a "lurr" (joo-lurr-ee) sound, as that doesn't make sense for how it's spelled. There's nothing to indicate a "lurr." Since jewel is pronounced "jew-ell" adding the "ry" on the end shoudn't change the prounounciation of the root word. So, it should be a three syllable word, "jew-ell-ree." There's not a "lurr" in sight! 

[WillyNilly]

"lr" make a lurr sound I guess. The "r" sound is on the middle syllable not the end one, so it changes the sound of that syllable. Jew-lurr-ee, its simply how I've always heard it said by everyone, in person, on TV, etc, I never questioned it. Lots of words slightly change pronunciation as they get longer.

Heck "pronounce" (pro-noun-sunce) versus "pronunciation" (pro-nun-ci-a-shun) changes in the middle from a nown sound to a nun sound.

[tiff019]

"lr" make a lurr sound I guess. The "r" sound is on the middle syllable not the end one, so it changes the sound of that syllable. Jew-lurr-ee, its simply how I've always heard it said by everyone, in person, on TV, etc, I never questioned it. Lots of words slightly change pronunciation as they get longer.

Heck "pronounce" (pro-noun-sunce) versus "pronunciation" (pro-nun-ci-a-shun) changes in the middle from a nown sound to a nun sound.

But the spelling also changes - you lose the 'u' in pronounce when it goes to pronunciation. That one makes total sense to me. =)

[katycoo]

How do Australians pronounce "lieutenant"?

Depends who you're asking.  Either Loo-tenant or Left-tenant would generally be accepted without correction - expect perhaps by someone actually known by the title, who might state their preference.

Probaby Loo-tenant is more common these days.

[katycoo]

Scallops - scall rhymes with all and hall not Hal.  Hearing it wrong makes my ears itch.

Where we live, 'scoll-ups' are decorations on clothing as in 'a scalloped hem'.  'Skall-ups' are the delicious things you eat with shallots and butter. 

I'm not sure what the difference is supposed to be based on your writing...

This brings up the pronunciation of 'gingham'.  Is the second 'g' pronounced as soft or hard?  Here, it's usually soft.

Soft in Australia.

[katycoo]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

How else would someone say jewelry? I've always heard it as joo-lurr-ee (jew-lr-y). Jewel-err-e sounds awkward to me, but thats the only alternative I can think of...

Aussies and Brits say Jew-ler-ry but we also spell it that way - jewellery.

[Kaora]

Or, as someone I used to know would say, joo-lurr-ee.

Mary, Marry, Merry, hairy, scary, dairy, etc...all pronounced the same in my neck of the woods, South Carolina. One thing I hate, and simply do not understand, though is that some people here in SC pronounce "hurricane" (sadly, a word we use far too often...) as "harry-cane." What the heck?

How else would someone say jewelry? I've always heard it as joo-lurr-ee (jew-lr-y). Jewel-err-e sounds awkward to me, but thats the only alternative I can think of...

Aussies and Brits say Jew-ler-ry but we also spell it that way - jewellery.

Jewelry is "Jewel+ree" here.  Jewel is pronounced like it would be alone. Joo-ll.  (Thanks to some work with a speech synth, I nearly typed in J6-ll.  6 is a long oo sound, like book and look, shook.  I so need sleep.)

February is pronounced as "Feb-U-airy", and Wednesday as as "Wends-day."  I'm now curious if there are any UK pronunciation differences with Saturday, due to the middle R there?  It's "SAT-err-day" here.

[scotcat60]

My primary school teacher had us all chantng  "Feb- RU- ary" "Lib-rary" and "I saw a" rather than "I sore-a"

I say Jewel-ree and I'm in the UK.