Linguistics Lesson

Those of you who have ever traveled outside of Boston realize that there are many people in this country (in fact, entire regions full of them) who just don't know how to speak properly.

Example:
There are two people on my team whose names Erin and Aaron. Occasionally I have heard people refer to the fact that there are "two Erins." This threw me off a bit, since as far as I knew there was only one. The problem of course, is that many people can't/don't distinguish between those two vowel sounds.

But they're different. Repeat after me:
"Bat"
"At"
"Aaron"

Those should all have the short "a" sound as in "Bat"

OK Now try this:

"Bet"
"Wet"
"Erin"

Again these should all the same vowel sound, it's sort of a short 'e' sound.

Get it? They're different. Practice if you don't believe me. You can do it.

OK Here's a little more advanced lesson. Repeat After Me:
"Mary"
"marry"
"merry"

Did those all sound the same to you? Wrong.
These words should have the same vowel sound. Say them aloud:
"Mare"
"Dare"
"airy"
"Mary"

Good. These should all have the broad a sound (as opposed to the long "a" in fate)

Now try these:
"cash"
"carry"
"Larry"
"marry"

These words have the short a sound, like @, and Aaron (see above)

Get it?
OK Last one, it's a tricky one so focus:
"wed"
"dead"
"shed"
"cherry"
"merry"

That one will take some practice.

If anyone is a linguistics expert, let me know why this peculiarity is a property of the Boston dialect. My hunch is that it is related to the softened or absent pronunciation of the letter R in cases where it follows a vowel. Perhaps the hard R sound somehow prevents a distinguishable pronunciation of the preceeding vowel sound in these words.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed today's lesson :)