Marmee, Mammy, Mommy, Maah-mee

Are you talking about Little Women?    You should be.    It's good to talk about.    But when you do, don't rhoticize the R in "Marmee."    The R in "Marmee" was not rhotic!!!    That is, your big round American R would have been an "aah" not an "arrrr". 

These characters (and their author) were something close to the dictionary definition of Boston Brahmins.    Check out Charles Emerson Winchester III on MASH —– David Ogden Stiers did a fantastically accurate job here.    Listen to him for a while:

  . . .  note that he gives some Rs their roundness, as a true Brahmin would, but drops the R almost (*almost*) like a Brit on others.    Pahk the cah-R-in Hah-vehd Yahd.

So.    Back to the girls.    Absolutely, positively, without question, it's "Maah-mee," with a very flat "aah."    So, it's not the "ah" of "father" but not quite like Scarlett O'Hara's "Mammy."    More like Major Winchester would do. 

They never said "Marrrrr-mee."    Alcott spelled it "Marmee" to give you the idea that they called her Maah–mee-with-the-Winchester-flat-aah. 

If she'd written Mommy, most Americans, then and now, would have heard in their minds the dark O of "Tommy" and "Commie."    If she'd written Mammy, they would have heard something more like Scarlett would say, and its racial overtones would be triply inappropriate!    So she wrote Marmee, hoping the public would "hear" the educated-class Boston accent.    It's possible her original readers did;  it's just as possible they mentally rhoticized the R just as most Americans now do. 

The same thing happened in the 80s with the glamorous pop chanteuse Sade.    (Shah-deh.)    On her debut album the British label put a pronunciation key right on the cover, to keep people from saying "Sade" to rhyme with "made" and "played."

But Americans saw it and gave it a round R —– "Shar-day" —– thus completely obviating the purpose of printing the pronunciation in the first place.    A whole generation of Americans called her Shar-day, and some still do. 

As for Marmee, the modern movies and miniseries almost always get it wrong.    Phooey:  if only you could get a real member of that East Coast class to show you how;  better yet, find one who could act, and who could play a creditable Jo.    Too much to ask?    Ahem, Katharine Hepburn, ladies and gentlemen:  to the manor born.    Listen closely (then keep watching for the other versions and crrrrrringe at all those awful Rs):

Katharine does it right, of course.    It shouldn't take a real deal like her to get that authentic pronunciation, though.    In fact, it doesn't:  all her co-stars get it right too, all in a row.

So.    Pronounce it Maah-mee.    What to do with that R?    Leave it where it belongs:  in Laurie Lawrence.