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A Girl Named PJ

You say “car-ml,” I say “carra-mel”

June 7, 2013

linguistic survey results on bunnyanddolly.com everyone-knows-that-the-midwest-calls-it-pop-the-northeast-and-west-coast-call-it-soda-while-the-south-is-really-into-brand-loyalty massachusetts-long-island-and-jersey-are-the-only-places-that-see-a-difference-between-merry-mary-and-marry-1

 

I knew my Ohio-born husband spoke funny, and now I have proof.

Joshua Katz, a Ph. D student in statistics at North Carolina State University, just published a group of awesome visualizations of a linguistic survey, and JB and I had quite a laugh quizzing each other on “correct” pronunciations. For example, he insists that Mary/merry/marry all sound the same, but being from NJ, I pronounce them all differently: Mairy, mehrry, and maaarry (like cat).

According the map above, however, I’m in the minority.

“Caramel” is another word that my husband (and two-thirds of the United States) mispronounces. He drops the middle “a” and just calls it “car-ml.” That sounds so absurd to me!

Are there any pronunciations that you and your spouse disagree on?

P.S. – As you can see here, they call is “pop” in Omaha, but I refuse to call a carbonated beverage anything but “soda!” 

via Business Insider

 

 

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12COMMENTS | Culture

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  1. JB

    June 7, 2013 at 11:52 am

    I love you even when you’re wrong.

    Reply
    • PJ

      June 7, 2013 at 4:34 pm

      Which is hardly ever, I know 😉

      Reply
  2. Lisa // Elembee

    June 7, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    i LOVED those maps. My grandma and I went through them yesterday together — she grew up in northern Illinois, and I grew up in East Texas. I lived with her growing up, so it was really funny to see where she influenced how I pronounce things, and where I picked up pronunciations from my hometown. She says caramel with 2 syllables, and I use 3. But she says pajamas the East Texas way (as in father), and I say it the Illinois way (as in jam)! We’re both weird when it comes to soda — we very rarely use a generic term because everyone in TX says coke, but my grandpa worked for Dr Pepper, so we always say exactly which brand we want.

    And I really don’t get how Mary/merry/marry are pronounced differently. I still can’t hear it in my head even with you spelling it out. You’ll have to tell me in NYC!

    Reply
    • PJ

      June 7, 2013 at 4:33 pm

      Oh, the three are VERY different. I will definitely have to sound them out for you in New York!

      Reply
  3. Lola

    June 7, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    car-ml; soda; all 3 the same!

    Reply
    • PJ

      June 7, 2013 at 4:33 pm

      Wrong, wrong, wrong!

      Reply
  4. Erin @ Omaha Public Library

    June 7, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    I love these maps! After I moved away from Iowa, I made a conscious effort to call it “soda” instead of “pop.” And I definitely say “car-ml.”

    Reply
    • PJ

      June 7, 2013 at 4:31 pm

      Now that you’re in Omaha, do you call it “pop” again?

      Reply
      • Erin @ Omaha Public Library

        June 12, 2013 at 9:26 am

        Nope – still soda. 🙂

        Reply
  5. Lindsey

    June 8, 2013 at 8:15 am

    Even though I’m from California, I say marry (mah-ry) differently from Mary and merry (meh-ry), which I say the same way.

    Reply
  6. Sara

    June 8, 2013 at 9:33 am

    The Mary/merry/marry thing blew my mind. I didn’t have a clue that it was such a minority that pronounces those words CORRECTLY (as in differently).

    Reply
  7. Mari

    June 9, 2013 at 9:33 am

    We argue constantly about the pronunciation of “bag”. I swear when my hubs says bag it sounds like “beg”. Me, I think bag should have the same sound as bad! We laugh all the time about it! But, clearly, my pronunciation is more accurate. 😉

    Reply

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