My comments were my own. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership who are responsible for decisions about the development and status of the players at all levels of the organization.

My comments were my own. They do not reflect the views and strategy of the Mariners baseball leadership who are responsible and there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos and that'll be a home run. And so that'll make it a 4-0 ballgame.

@RyanDivish
Kevin Mather has resigned his position.

but I thought it was refreshing and gives a ton of insight

Don’t see any real faux pas

Why on earth would Mather take such a gratuitous shot at one of his top prospects? It makes no sense.

i have been told by a whole LOT of people who didn't grow up with english as a first language that it is really hard to get rid of an accent and to speak like a native speaker with the confidence of a native speaker. you always make mistakes. i have been told by people who speak more than 2 languages that english is THE hardest language to learn to speak because our language has no rules and is mostly slang

I have (commercial) tenants who speak English perfectly well, until I have to take them to court and then all-of-a-sudden, faster than you can say "Sammy Sosa," their English goes in the toilet and they ask for an interpreter. And, everyone in the courthouse, from the judge on down, all know it's utter b.s.

i've noticed how much contempt many native english speakers have for someone who has an accent.

i have been told by a whole LOT of people who didn't grow up with english as a first language that it is really hard to get rid of an accent and to speak like a native speaker with the confidence of a native speaker.

People sometimes have trouble coming up with pronunciations which do not exist in their native language.

And the former business reporter at my newspaper in Little Rock whose first name was Theo, pronounced Tay-oh.

I hadn't heard this one before. I am in the "can't make them sound differently" camp.

reddit has a map: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/7l1wkr/how_marrymarymerry_are_pronounced_by_us_state/

Without looking it up...Theo Francis?

You are correct. Good guy. His (then-future) wife was a reporter on the news side, where I was night (& later weekend) city editor, & later worked for NPR online, I believe.

(Unfortunately, her mother was a COVID-19 visitor during the summer, dying at the hospital where she'd worked & presumably contracted it.)

/ch/ch/ch/ "changes"

I discovered it when I went to school in the Midwest from New York. For a lot of my schoolmates, there might be a slight difference between merry and Mary (though all tending to sound like Mary), but they weren't even capable of saying marry with the "a" in cat the way a fellow New Yorker and I could. Their efforts were similar to the pathetic sound I made trying to roll my Rs in Spanish class.

Between Trump and Sanders, there may be a lull in the prejudice against NY accents,

but Southern accents incite negative judgment in much of the US.

I sound like a zombie.

I think I pronounce "marry"/"Mary" and "merry" differently (New Englander), but I'm not sure how it sounds to other people. It's like how I can feel my mouth doing different things for "toe" and "tow", but doubt anyone can hear the difference.

i have been told by a whole LOT of people who didn't grow up with english as a first language that it is really hard to get rid of an accent and to speak like a native speaker with the confidence of a native speaker. you always make mistakes. i have been told by people who speak more than 2 languages that english is THE hardest language to learn to speak because our language has no rules and is mostly slang

If I'm brought to court in a non-English-speaking country, no matter how well I think I know the local language, I'm asking for an interpreter. Not knowing how to speak in court in your second or third language isn't something I would hold against someone.

Odd. Does that mean "mare" is impossible for you to pronounce except as, I guess, "mere"?

"Mare" is easy to pronounce. It's the same as the first syllable in "marry," "merry," or "Mary." It rhymes with "dare" or "care." "Mere" rhymes with "steer" and is also very easy to say.

I just read through that Reddit thread and tried for five minutes to say "marry" with the short 'a' as in "cat" and I don't think it's even possible for this native Southern Californian. I almost have to unhinge my jaw to get close, and I sound like a zombie.

The "a" in "dare," "care," etc. is the same as in "cat" for me, unless my (admittedly tinnitic) ears are lying to me.

Never occurred to me that marry, merry, and Mary could be pronounced differently from each other.

Mary being like fairy, rare, air.

For people who pronounce all 3 the same, which do they use: ferry, marigold, or fairy?

gef, or others — do you pronounce the words “app” and “ape” the same way?

and asking a genteel New Yawk gal if she likes [scary] "whore...r" films might get you a slap in the face (non-COVID-19 era).

merry being like ferry

meh, many

What in the holy hell.

"Meh" = "tell"; "merry" = "mare"

marry being like Fahrenheit, marigold, marijuana, magic, malware.

merry being like ferry, meh, many, nebulous.

Mary being like fairy, rare, air.

I guess it’s most noticeable with “ar” words because the long “a” gets shortened before those words (People don’t say “May-ree” or “hay-ree”.)

a problem arises with the similar "horror," however.

"hahr-er" at least sounds easy. when I hear "hawr-r," it sounds to me like a verbal equivalent of stubbing one's toe because there is no contrasting sound to end the word.

and asking a genteel New Yawk gal if she likes [scary] "whore...r" films might get you a slap in the face (non-COVID-19 era).

gef, or others — do you pronounce the words “app” and “ape” the same way?

I knew a Mary in highschool. Typically people pronounced it 'marry', I went with 'merry',

There aren't many words with a long a sound before an r. I can think of a few places, such as Beirut or, to some speakers*, Cairo, Illinois, but no other words jump immediately to mind.

Karo syrup (speaking of the Illinois city). Pharaoh. Payroll.

Pharaoh. Payroll.