'Mary Christmas?' Apparently, only New Jerseyans think that's wrong
New Jersey is part of a small percentage of Americans that pronounce "Mary," "merry" and "marry" differently.
Joshua Katz, a PhD student in statistics at North Carolina State University, created a map based on a Harvard Dialect Survey about how Americans speak.
The study, led by Prof. Bert Vaux, asked respondents how they pronounce "Mary," "merry" and "marry." Only 17 percent of the 11,422 respondents believed all three are different, most of which are in New Jersey. A majority (57 percent) believes all three are the same.
Parts of Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts also believe there is a difference between all three pronunciations, the map shows, but those entire states are not in agreement.
Residents in nearby Pennsylvania believe that "Mary" and "merry" are the same, but that "marry" is different. Some residents in the southern tip of Louisiana feel the same.
Katz has created dozens of maps to show how dialects differ by region. One map shows that New Jersey is the only state to call the night before Halloween “Mischief Night.”
LINK: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...j_think_thats_wrong.html#incart_river_default
New Jersey is part of a small percentage of Americans that pronounce "Mary," "merry" and "marry" differently.
Joshua Katz, a PhD student in statistics at North Carolina State University, created a map based on a Harvard Dialect Survey about how Americans speak.
The study, led by Prof. Bert Vaux, asked respondents how they pronounce "Mary," "merry" and "marry." Only 17 percent of the 11,422 respondents believed all three are different, most of which are in New Jersey. A majority (57 percent) believes all three are the same.
Parts of Rhode Island, New York and Massachusetts also believe there is a difference between all three pronunciations, the map shows, but those entire states are not in agreement.
Residents in nearby Pennsylvania believe that "Mary" and "merry" are the same, but that "marry" is different. Some residents in the southern tip of Louisiana feel the same.
Katz has created dozens of maps to show how dialects differ by region. One map shows that New Jersey is the only state to call the night before Halloween “Mischief Night.”
LINK: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...j_think_thats_wrong.html#incart_river_default
