Re: more English orthography

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
>
> From: "John Cowan"
>
> > Roger Mills wrote:
>
> > > Similar neutralization before /r/ seems to be characteristic of most
> General
> > > Midwestern speech, maybe all American except Southern(?).
>
> > No, I have the Mary/marry/merry distinction, and I was born north of
> Macey-Dixie.
> > I think this isogloss encloses the Eastern Seaboard as well as the South.
>
> I think I've got a two-way distinction between Mary/merry vs. marry. Mary
> Poppins and Merry Christmas sound the same in my idiolect. Though I hail
> from Boston ('burbs), I don't have the accent, which I attribute to being
> part of the TV generation. Still, "I'll have a Bloody Mary." sounds a little
> different from "Have a Merry Christmas." /E:/ vs. /E/? A big three-way
> distinction sounds very New York to me.
Yeah, I think so too.  It seems to me that most New England dialects
don't have the three way distinction, only the two that Douglas has.  I
live in the suburbs of New York though, and definitely have a three-way
distinction.

Nicole