Quote:
Originally Posted by Amnorix
So...do people really pronounce "mary", "marry" and "merry" the same way, or some combo of them the same way?
I pronounce "aunt" correctly (in my view, anyway -- it's NOT "ant"), but I know that's unusual/regional. I had no idea that those three words above could be pronounced the same, however!!
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I'm pretty sure the standard generic way to say MARY MARRY and MERRY all sound the same. In fact, I have no idea what other way you would pronounce them. Even if I try to differentiate MARY from MERRY, they all sound the exact same to me. You just talk weird heh
The area I grew up (Western Iowa) most closely resembles the "general american accent" and accents from that area are routinely copied by newscasters and those in media as to have the most generally accepted form of speech. Because newscasters aren't supposed to sound like they are from
anywhere
But, most from the coasts seem to think people in Iowa and Kansas speak in more of a southern or northern accent than they actually do. Although I do notice some people in Kansas City that have a small southern twang. Whenever I'm away from home, and people ask me where I'm from, I ask them to guess based on my accent. They usually are surprised that I'm from Iowa or Kansas and expect me to sound more like a hillbilly or something. To me, if you draw a line from Western Texas diagonally up just west of Chicago, speech seems to be more generalized when you start to go West.
Per wikipedia, the area of which the local accent is most similar to general american as a whole is:
