Re: some more Irish vowels


Ekkehard Dengler wrote:
"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1165784751.960266.254060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Out of curiosity, I picked up an Ivor Novello album, and John McCormick
sings (beautifully, of course) "Keep the Home Fires Burning" -- but he
doesn't rhyme "yearning" with "burning"! "Burning" has myrrh, as
expected, but "yearning" has Mary!

Many Irish people pronounce non-prevocalic "ir/yr" and "ur" alike while
keeping "er/ear" distinct. I don't think "yearning" has "Mary", though; I
would say it has the "dress" vowel (or "merry", if you like).
In the northwest (and possibly in other parts of the country),
non-prevocalic "ar" has a much closer vowel than "trap", so that both "hard"
and "heard" can sound like [hErd].

Again, because merry and Mary are perfectly distinct for me, I have no
trouble identifying which is used in McC's "yearning."

.

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