In Colorado, near its headwaters, the Arkansas River is called the Ar-Kansas. In the state of Arkansas it’s pronounced Arkansaw.
I’ve always wondered if there’s a particular point on the river where the pronunciation by the locals changes.
bfl
LOL -- same in Philly.
Mary = MEHry.
Merry = MUHry.
Marry = MAHwree.
Listen to people say onion. A lot pronounce it with an imaginary G in it. I don’t think that has anything to do with what region you’re from though.
I remember some guy on WHAT’S MY LINE who did the Henry Higgens thing for the USA back in the early 1960s.
I still maintain that the most beautiful American accent of all is the old-time, now extinct, New England Yankee accent as epitomized by Calvin Coolidge, Farmer Smurf, and Titus Moody. I’m not talking about urban Boston or Harvard brahmin here.
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/07/which-american-accent-do-you-have/
Take a 17-question quiz here and find out.
http://www.youthink.com/quiz.cfm?action=go_detail&sub_action=take&obj_id=9827
The guys I met in New Jersey pronounced "soda" as "so-dee".
Thank goodness the word “axe”, as in “Eye axe yu an queshchon”, is pronounce uniformly across these United States.
As a result, I grew up with an Aunt Louise, pronounced ANT, and an Aunt Marie, pronounced ONT.
I live in a far-suburban area of northern North Carolina. There are at least six distinct dialects within a twenty mile radius. The Dan River accent is a very, very southern drawl that meanders back and forth with the river, into NC then back into VA, from west of Madison, NC on past South Boston, VA. Just a few miles away in many instances is a Scotch-Irish dialectical survival that is very strong. It’s so entrenched that I could probably tell what sort of accent somebody will have from surname alone. Same is true of the Dan River, Yadkin Valley, Foothills, Randolph County and Caswell County accents. Caswell has some crossover with Dan River. It’s the oldest sounding of the bunch to me, or at least the most isolated. Lots of archaic words.
I’m from Southern Ohio (which is pronounced “Oh-hi-Ya”)
Around here we go swimming in the “crick” (creek) and we hang our clothes on the “booshes” (bushes) to dry when we get out of the water.
My best friend in high school in KC was born there, but his family was from the Ozarks. When laundering clothes, they would take clothes (close) out (ought) of the washer (warsher) and put them in the drier (drahr).
Born in Jersey, raised in South Florida, live in New Mexico.
Mary and marry are the same. Merry has an “er” sound.
In Cape Cod, 1974, I wanted a milkshake.
I was told to order a frappe.