Paul and Diane (sounds like a song),

 

In my pronunciation, “orange” is one syllable, /OrndZ/.  I have /O/ there (“open o”) because my low back vowels don’t occur in diphthongs and my ai/au diphthongs start mid central, but that’s an Inland Northern thing.

 

Herb

 

 

Paul,

 

I was raised in California, but my pronunciation is like your New England wife and kids'. .  I had to laugh a little, though, because you mentioned "the first syllable" of the word.  I hear "orange" as a single syllable that begins with "or."

 

Diane

 

Diane Allen, M.A.
Technical Writing Coordinator
Midland College
AFA 131
432/685-6458 office
432/686-4901 fax
[log in to unmask]


>>> [log in to unmask] 3/18/2006 7:40 PM >>>

Richard,

 

Your pronunciation matches my own to a tee, but then, I too was born and raised in NYC. Here's another word that holds some fascination for me: orange. In my ear the first syllable sounds like the word 'are', but my wife and kids, who are New Englanders, pronounce it like the word 'or'! The opportunities for teasing are endless.

 

Paul D.


"Veit, Richard" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

As a TA at the University of Iowa, I once performed a magic trick for my students. I wrote the words "merry," "marry," and "Mary" on the board, turned my back to the board, and had one of the students point randomly to one word after another. I asked the only student in the class from New York to pronounce the word being pointed to (which I could not see). I amazed the class by correctly spelling each word he pronounced (which all sound the same to Midwestern ears).

 

In my (New York native) dialect there are four different and distinct vowel sounds after the m's in the following sentence:

 

Merry Mary may remarry.

 

Phoneticians out there can correct me, but I think my pronunciation of the vowels might be described as follows:

 

merry - lax mid front vowel, like the e in bet

may - tense mid front vowel, as in bay

marry - lax low front vowel, as most Americans (but not, say, Chicagoans) pronounce back and cat

Mary - vowel between low front and mid front (the one many Chicagoans use in back and cat).

 

Midwesterners generally pronounce merry, marry, and Mary the way New Yorkers pronounce Mary.

 

Dick Veit

________________________________

Richard Veit
Department of English
University of North Carolina Wilmington

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Beth Scholler
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 4:35 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question: Language change and malapropism

 

Paul E. Doniger writes:

 

" it's hard to hear the difference among the words, merry, marry, and Mary (the all sound like merry).

 

I'm from the midwest and they have always sounded alike, the meaning being made clear in context. Lippi-Green also made the same reference, but I'm curious--how are they "supposed" to sound? Or, perhaps it's better to ask how other parts of the country pronounce them.

 

Beth

lurking student and future English teacher


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