Re: USAGE: intrusive "r" [was Re: (Offlist) Re: ASCII IPA]

 --- Roger Mills <romilly@...> wrote: > Tom Wier
wrote:
>
> >For some reason, in America I associate this
> phenomenon
> >exclusively with New England.  Perhaps I've watched
> too
> >much public television -- Norm Abram, originally on
> _This
> >Old House_ and now doing his own public television
> show
> >_The New Yankee Workshop_, has a very distinct
> intrusive
> >"r".  I don't think I've ever heard of Southern
> dialects
> >with intrusive "r". I'd be curious to know if
> anybody's
> >ever heard any.
> >
> New England, definitely.  _South_ Dakota??? ;)  The
> odd thing was that in my
> (vintage 1940s) grade-school class of 30-some, there
> were maybe 2 or 3
> offenders, and _idear_ was almost the only word
> where it occurred-- one
> heard it from adults too.  (Cuba not being a subject
> of much discussion in
> those days).  The usage tended to correlate with
> lower socio-economic
> status, hence the opprobrium from teachers and other
> middle-class types.
> Since their accents were otherwise standard
> midwestern, it's hard to see
> where "idear" came from.  Perhaps a survival from
> parents/grandparents who
> may been migrants from New England.
>
> (Incidentally the final -r was not just
> intervocalic; it was always there,
> as in "Hey, that's a good idear!")
ooh, a bit like the accent in bristol.

'bristol area' becomes 'bristow areal' ( /l/ is
usually almost [w] )

bn

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