As a North American speaker, I have always struggled with the MERRY/MARRY/MARY set of vowels which are preserved outside of North America. Of course, mine are 100% merged. Your blog entry today has finally prompted me to use the shiny, red "Ask Professor Wells" button on the website. The confusion for me comes not in how the vowels sound, but how they are determined. Is there an orthographical rule that covers this effectively?So I replied
Generally speaking, the MERRY set (with the DRESS vowel) are spelt with the letter e. The MARRY set (with the TRAP vowel) are spelt with a, in positions where you would expect a short vowel. The MARY set (with the SQUARE vowel) are also spelt with a, or ai etc., in positions where you would expect a long vowel.
Merry, very, terror, berry, bury, Jerry, Kerry have DRESS. Marry, carry, arrow, narrow, baron/barren, arid, charity have TRAP. Mary, vary, area, bear(er), fair(y), precarious, Pharaoh have SQUARE.
There are one or two words where speakers
There will now be another break in my blogging: back again on 2 September.