Where I’m from, “Mary,” “Marry,” and “Merry” are not pronounced the same.
Mary rhymes with airy. Marry rhymes with Barry. Merry rhymes with ferry.
Every one of those words rhyme and sound the same… Not sure if you are joking or of my accent is the joke…
Where are you from? Wildly guessing NZ?
Maybe I’m misunderstanding. I grew up in NYC, and “father” absolutely does rhyme with “bother”. Just listen to Run DMC: “they even bother my poor father cause he’s down with me.”
Younger New Yorkers do have the father-bother merger, but older New Yorkers don’t.
Also, Run DMC probably speak African-American English, which, as this map says, is generally independent of other dialects and not included on this map.
I’m 41. Mary, Merry, marry, are completely different words.
