<p>Miami area of Florida is actually all over the map with different types of English accents. Spanish of course influences the way many Miami people speak English with a Latin cadence and vowel influences. Transplants from the Northeast and Midwest parts of US brought their accents with them. Yiddish, Haitian, and Southerner and native Florida Cracker influences can be found in south Florida spoken English also. Many old time Florida born natives pronounce Miami–Miamuh or even Mammy. South Florida is a real amalgam of English accents.</p>
<p>Lol, Ema, this is a quote from the U of M forum " know that Ann Arbor downtown has a few markets and grocery stores, but Meijers, Krogers, etc."</p>
<p>We don’t know the proper way to write things either. I seriously didn’t know for the longest time that it WASN’T Meijers or Krogers. I thought that was their name!</p>
<p>I thought this was interesting since I seem to have an blend:
blue on the crustacean one
green on caramel
green on been
blue on Bowie Knife (but I’m a Marylander, so that explains it)
blue for crayon
red for lawyer
blue on the slaw/coleslaw one (but I know plenty of people who say slaw, and I know what they mean)
blue and yellow on address a group of people (red when I was younger/before I started studying foreign languages)
green for mayonnaise
red for pyjamas
red and green for pecan (it depends on who I’m speaking to)
red (or fizzy drink) for the carbonated beverage question
red for roads converging to a circle
red for syrup
red for the long sandwich
blue on fountain from which you drink water
blue or green on shoes for athletic activities
yellow on fast roads (in that a freeway is an interstate and a highway is a state route)
blue on rain and sun at the same time
blue on “the City” (it’s DC or Baltimore since they went with a capital C)
red on drive-trough liquor stores
blue on Mary, merry and marry</p>
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<p>I’m watching the Boston vs Chicago game and I <em>finally</em> understand the difference.</p>
<p>We say all three of them very differently (and, I would argue, correctly!):</p>
<p>“Mary” rhymes with “hairy”, “dairy”, and “scary” - “mAIR-ee”</p>
<p>“Marry” rhymes with “Harry” (which does not rhyme with “hairy”) or “Barry” - “mAHR-ee”</p>
<p>“Merry” rhymes with “berry” or “ferry” - “mEH-ree”</p>
<p>Give up on the Mary, Marry, Merry, Hairy, Harry, Larry, Terry, Barry, Berry, Fairy, Carry, Carrie, etc. already! </p>
<p>According to the usage of most Americans, they all rhyme.
Those who pronounce them differently are WAY outnumbered and a dying breed. ;)</p>
<p>fOssil has it dead on…outnumbered…maybe, but have it right</p>
<p>Baltimore = Ball’mer
Maryland = Merlin </p>
<p>ambulance = amblance
beer = boh (from “National Bohemian” aka “Natty Boh”)
behind = behine
bypass = bop ass
Colts (former Ball’mer football team) = Cotes
county = canny
fire engine = farngin
going to the beach = goan downy ayshun (“going down to the ocean”)
Howard County = Haired Canny
oil = ool
oh = eh-ew
police = poh-lease
power mower (lawn mower) = paramour
tire iron = tar arn
siren = sah-reen
sour = sare
100 MPH = hunnert molls in air
pavement = paymint
sir/ma’am = hon (from “honey”)
Sunday = Sundie
under = unner (“a farngine passed me unner the bop ass goin’ a hunnert molls in air”)
wash = warsh
water = wudder</p>
<p>tk21769 - excellent work! May I add…</p>
<p>keg rhymes with Hague
Orioles = Ohreos, or just Ohs. “How 'bout dem Ohs?”</p>
<p>-db21784 ;)</p>
<p>I haven’t seen this one yet: route (“root” or “rauwt”?). This caused a knock-down, drag-out fight at the dinner table one Sunday between my mom (Scotland to New York to Texas) and my brother-in-law (native Texan). </p>
<p>And here in Austin it’s “tennishoes” (all run together). And coke (brand name used as a generic, like kleenex or tupperware). And y’all of course.</p>
<p>But my Long Island childhood must still be an influence because Mary, marry and merry have 3 different pronunciations and I put “sear-up” on my waffles!</p>
<p>I’m afraid I grew up hearing just about all the variations that have been given from deep South to Long Island and mid-western thrown in. I still don’t know about caramel…but Mary, merry and marry are all pronounced differently as Fossil says.
I sing in a chorus where vowel and word pronunciation is important–we’ve had some interesting discussions about regional accents and which should win!</p>
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<p>I say route both ways. I think I am more likely to say root in my head and say “rauwt” out loud but I definitely use them interchangeably. I wonder how that happened!</p>
<p>My MI family says “tennishoes,” too. I think this varies a lot around here. I’ve conciously started calling them running shoes instead to avoid confusing people outside my family. </p>
<p>I noticed my fiance has tried to stop saying baggel. Lately he’s been saying something that sounds like baggels and bay-gulls mashed together. I guess I teased him too much.</p>
<p>austinmt, my British co-workers definitely say “root”, while we all say “rauwt” (Texas), they laugh at us, but they’re outnumbered. We tell them a root is something in the ground or something a pig does.</p>
<p>Here in the Detroit area (pronounced DeTROIT lol), I’ve always said:</p>
<p>expressway (instead of highway or freeway)</p>
<p>front room (instead of living room), and “front room” is said all mashed together like “tennishoes” lol</p>
<p>I call it a “pen”, but many people here say “ink pen” (To show that they’re not writing with a “pig pen”, I suppose)</p>
<p>and we also use the word “party store” to describe where we go to buy beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, pop, etc. My friend went to California and wanted to buy some liquor, and asked a local where a party store was. She was directed to a store that sold balloons and party supplies lol</p>