Talk:berry

Should verb sense be marked rare? RJFJR 23:59, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

homophones
the homophone section says: Homophone: bury (in accents without the "Mary, marry, merry" merger)

I'm not sure I understand why the Mary/marry/merry merger is mentioned. The two words are also homophonous in those accents with the merger, aren't they? 131.169.205.92 16:08, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Not necessarily. If I recall (I'm not certain because I don't have the merger) some dialects with the merger would merge "bury" with the sound of "burr", due to influence from the hurry-furry merger (which I also do not have.) Tharthan (talk) 15:07, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

While that's true, that just means the note should say something like "except in dialects with the hurry-furry merger". Presence of the Mary/marry/merry merger isn't a useful indication of whether bury and berry are homophones for any given dialect. I've now put that in there, as it seems more reasonable. 131.169.205.86 14:24, 8 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't think there are any accents where bury and berry aren't homophones. The hurry-furry merger plays no role here, though there are some US accents where bury/berry are pronounced to rhyme with furry (see Furry–ferry merger). —Angr 10:02, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Now it implies bury is only a homophone for those who happen to have that merger. In fact it's a homophone for most people who don't live near to Bury. 109.154.153.39 14:27, 7 September 2015 (UTC)


 * That is not so. It says that "Barry" is not a homophone in standard dialects. It says nothing of "bury". Tharthan (talk) 15:59, 7 September 2015 (UTC)