Message: "Re: Are Aaron and Erin pronounced the same?"

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Re: Are Aaron and Erin pronounced the same?

by Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

1/3/2006, 10:18 AM

There is no "right or wrong" here, it's a matter of accent or dialect. In most of the United States (outside of New England and parts of the New York City and New Jersey area), the pronunciation of American English has lost the "a" sound that is found in the word "cat" before "r", and so all the words which would have that sound in England, Australia, or Boston, Massachusetts, end up sounding like they contained the word "air". So to most Americans, Aaron and Erin are pronounced the same, as are the pairs Kerry/Carrie, Berry/Barry, fairy/ferry, Harry/hairy, Mary/merry, Perry/parry, and Terry/tarry. Most people in England and Australia would never think of these pairs as having the same pronunciation, but outside of the Northeast the huge majority of Americans would think that they are identical.

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- Marie (guest) +3

8/17/2021, 4:56 PM

Seriously, almost all of those "pairs" of words you've put here are most definitely NOT pronounced the same. HAIR-ee (hairy)is not the same as HA-ree Harry), BEAR-ee (berry) is not the same as BA-ree (Barry), KAIR-ee (Kerry), is not the same as CARRY (Carrie), PAIR-ee (Perry) is not the same as PA-ree (Parry), TAIR-ee (Terry) is not the same as TA-ree (tarry). Ferry and Fairy are pronounced ALMOST the same, but with fairy, you hold the vowel a fraction longer, where ferry is a short clipped word. Mary and merry is the same as fairy and ferry. The same sounds but one is held longer.

Either the person who wrote this post has a hearing clarity issue, or the people around them have no idea how to enunciate.

- Chad (guest)

3/28/2023, 7:35 AM

I'm from the West Coast - My mom grew up in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri before moving to California at the end of high school. There are some things she says that drive me nuts ("salza" instead of "salsa"), but, I suppose, like her, I pronounce these words with a nearly indistinguishable difference (Berry/Barry) - My uncle's name is Berry (not Barry). To my wife, who's from New York/New Jersey/Connecticut, she says I pronounce "Aaron" and "Erin" the same. But I know she's not "really" listening to the difference. It's where I'm putting the emphasis on the vowel sound. However, I have to admit I'm likely pronouncing as the same vowel sound.

This little trick from Reddit I stumbled across will likely help me with some of my pronunciation:
"In Wales, I know several Aarons who pronounce it Air-un, the double /aa/ beginning lengthens the initial sound. Erin is always eh-rin, with a short /e/ like in ‘egg’."

- Amy (guest)

12/15/2021, 10:22 AM

I'm afraid that you must think, upon listening to them closely, that most Americans "have no idea how to enunciate." We are indeed not taught how to do so, or at least I was not. I'm from Austin, Texas and grew up pronouncing all of these word pairs exactly the same, and continue to do so, though I know others who pronounce them slightly differently. berry = Barry = bury. I presume it was a similar dialect issue that led the class to be very confused when my Latin teacher attempted to use the words "pin" and "pen" to demonstrate the difference between the short "i" and "e"; most of the class pronounces these words identically with the "i" sound, as in most words with "en". He would have been better off using "pit" and "pet", which are much more distinct. I would have said "pin" and "pen" were homophones (same pronunciation, different definitions). I find the differences in pronunciation across different English-speaking areas fascinating.

- Jenkowelten

8/17/2021, 6:15 PM

It's called having a different dialect

- Aaron (guest) +2

9/3/2019, 3:43 PM

I have this issue every time people speak my name. I used to live in New York, so it was never an issue before. I don’t understand why people think Aaron and Erin are the same name. They’re not, therefore they wouldn’t be pronounced the same way.

- Aaron (guest)

11/14/2022, 7:51 PM

I've started telling people to think about the double A sound in other words and use that for my name. Baal, Aardvark, AARGH (like a pirate).
This way sounds nice, and it's distinctly different than Erin.

- Erin (guest)

12/30/2021, 11:31 AM

Hello there!

You are absolutely right! Thank you .
I am an irish girl Erin.
Aaron is Hebrew and is a boys name!

It upsets me too.

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