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

Quoting Roger Mills <romilly@...>:

> Tom Wier wrote:
>
> >For some reason, in America I associate this phenomenon
> >exclusively with New England.  [...]
>
> 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!")
Interesting.  It strikes me that this might be a lone holdover
from immigrants from the East Coast.  The westernmost dialects
of the South have analogous holdovers.  I myself grew up saying
_cuss(words)_ instead of _curse(words)_, despite the fact that
Texan dialects are more or less entirely rhotic. (I distinctly
remember the first time I heard someone speak of "curse" words.
I was in about the fourth grade, and a Canadian woman was
reprimanding a group of boys for their rowdiness. I knew
immediately what she meant, but it was odd, nonetheless.) So,
in both cases, South Dakotan _idear_ and Texan _cuss_, it seems
the odd addition or lack of rhoticness is defined in the UR.

(The only difference is, _cuss_ was not looked down on as
the speech of ignorant people; it's just what people used.)

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier
Dept. of Linguistics  "Nihil magis praestandum est quam ne pecorum ritu
University of Chicago sequamur antecedentium gregem, pergentes non qua
1010 E. 59th Street   eundum est, sed qua itur." -- Seneca
Chicago, IL 60637

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