The speakers Brianna used for her study have no reason to distinguish between 'pin' and 'pen,' either from a perception or production standpoint, since others in their speech community don't. It's just a matter of what the speakers have been exposed to and the distinctions they're used to making. |
There used to be a point in history where 'Mary,' 'merry' and 'marry' were different. Those are distinct pronunciations in certain parts of New York. |