Mary, Merry, Marry all sound different to me!
MARE-ee, MEH-ree, and MA-ree. 
@rhododendron has it right. ?
@rhododendron with you all the way. Heard them all pronounced the same my entire life—all ending in airy.
I wouldn’t necessarily say “right” (but I acknowledge the smiley face), but that’s what lines up with my experience.
Curious, now, for those of you who hear a difference. When John Kerry was running for president and all over the news - did you find that some reporters “mispronounced” his name? Was there a pattern of which networks/outlets/areas?
When I listen to national news on tv or radio, I don’t really notice any kind of “accent” at all unless maybe the reporter is not a native English speaker. Have national reporters learned to speak in a way that doesn’t sound “wrong” to anyone, regardless of what your normal “accent” is?
Does anyone pronounce the word “bury” differently than Barry or berry? They all sound the same to me.
Barry, bury, and berry even more different to me ; )
My H from NE says Mary and marry the same, but differentiates between the Barry, bury, berry.
I say berry, but I have heard burry.
I can’t see pronouncing the three M’s differently- at least one of them would be corrupted. I like that long list of same sounding words, and any added. What do people do when they hear any of us who use the same pronunciation do- get meaning from context?
Add bury to my long list of words that rhyme. Bury, Barry, berry.
I don’t think there’s any right or wrong here. Some people hear a difference, some don’t. What I wonder is if you heard me say marry, would it sound like merry to you? Because I wouldn’t be saying merry.
As someone pointed out upthread, they are all different parts of speech.
I say bury differently from Barry and berry. I pronounce it burry, although I tend to say buried treasure like barried treasure. I also say burial with a long U.
When my mother (named Mary and from the Boston area though she did not really have a Boston accent) Mary rhymed with hairy, and merry with ferry. I can say all three differently if asked to, but what I actually do is pronounce Mary like merry while marry is completely different. This is pretty much how my Mom pronounced them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2_VLUnbAbY
You can only hear a difference if people actually pronounce them differently. Many people don’t. (According to Google 57%.)
I spent three months on a work detail in Baltimore a few decades ago and it wasn’t long before I was telling people I was in Ballmer Merlnd.
I also once spent a summer in Nevada, which I’d always pronounced Nevah-da. Everyone there said Neva-da (the “a” as in bat or hat).
Laughed over the earlier comment about Des Plaines - compare that to Des Moines.
There was once a Second City skit that involved a frustrated Chicago bus driver dealing with passengers who (locally) mispronounced everything - O’Hara Airport, Soldiers Field, Cominsky Park and, yes, Goethe Street.
Same here – have done it since childhood. I must have gotten it from my Alabama mother.
@rhododendron but cherry doesn’t fit - it’s more ch-eh-rry than chairy.
I had a difficult time with a childhood friend named Kerry, who pronounced it Curry.
@stradmom Cherry is the same sound in my world, no eh, definitely ch-airy.
just hopping on this thread. don’t know if it’s regional, or just laziness, but people here say “I’m a na” and it’s short for " I’m going to " . Have you heard that? it’s said very quickly and not all that noticeable until you notice it! then you realize how much of a slang lazy term it is that’s very common. midwest here; wondered if other say it too.
Similarly, I just heard a radio interview where the person kept talking about the “gummint,” as opposed to the “government.”
I am not sure this has been mentioned yet. The town of Keokuk, Iowa is often pronounced Kill-kuk by the very local locals. Get more than 20 miles away and it is pronounced the way it is spelled. (kee-o-kuk). A small minority of locals call it Kerkuk instead of Kill kuk. Not sure where the extra letters came from…