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[Opinions] Really?
It must be the accent or something...Harry and Hairy sound absolutely nothing alike in my accent.
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In the North it doesn't sound like Hairybut down here it is Hairy and my sister Sarah is Saira. Up north he is Harry and she is Sarah, as it should be - but to me it is "hairy." Very very much.Still, it seems like an adjective that is v. close to Harry in the north accent, IMO at least.
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I'm from the Northeast. I understand how Harry could sound like Hairy, but to me they sound distinctively different.Harry = Hah-ree (like, the beginning of the word "half")
Hairy = Hayhr-ee (rhymes with bear)
Sarah = Sah-rahFunny how it varies so much from region to region, not just country to country!
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Sarah and Harry sound completely different in my accentI say Sarah like SARE-ah (rhymes with HAIR-ah :-p) and Harry with the short a like the a in attic. HA-ree and SAIR-ah.How does the pronunciation of Sarah vary from north to south?
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The a in attic sounds likethe a in Harry to me. What does the a in attic sound like to you?Pronunciations in different accents confound me.Sarah and Harry both have a sound like "hair" in my ear.
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Its a short a, like at-tic whereas the a in Sarah is long, like SAIR-ah. Harry is a short a as well, like HA-ree. I really need to record myself saying these and then post it...*runs to phone to record it*http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v643/poetic_freedom/Photos/?action=view¤t=06-04-08_1651.flvOkay that is me saying Sarah, attic, Harry and hair.
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Just to addThat is a video file because that's all my phone does and I don't know how to convert it to just a sound file. There is only sound on the video though, no image
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What does the a in attic sound like to you?Like the A in apple, cat, Radcliffe, yak, etc.Hairy, though--more of an "ay" sound, you know?Array
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This Northerner says no, it does.It's in the East that they say Haarry, like the A in attic. That sound doesn't exist before the letter R in Midwestern accents. ^^;;Array (her sister is a SARE-uh, too)
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North-east, then.In my family we refer to northeast as "north" because it's directly above us.edit: incorrectly. We refer incorrectly.

This message was edited 4/5/2008, 8:08 PM

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Ditto, they sound totally different in my accent...but on TV it's always "hairy". *shrug*
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In the US they're almost identicalHence Seamse's Streets play on words with "Hairy" Monster.
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Not even 'almost' for me.They're the same word phonetically when I hear/say them.
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