Re: [tied] W's in Swedish??

--- In cybalist@..., tgpedersen@... wrote:

> --- In cybalist@..., markodegard@... wrote:
> > Torsten writes:
> > > That's another question that came into my mind: Does
> > > American English retroflex r come from Dutch?
> >
> > I don't understand my own American Rs.
> >
> > I doubt, however, that the American R is Dutch derived. Rather,

the

> > General American accent starts in the NE corner of Ohio (the old
> > Western Reserve of Connecticut) and expands conically as it moves
> > west.
> >
> > The rhotic "non-RP" accent you find in most of the US and Canada

is

> > paralleled by 'West Country' accents found in England.
> >
> > The founder effects here are fascinating.
>
> I know that the 'West Country' founder effect is the standard
> explanation. But how come those West Country folks started the
> American English standard dialect in NE Ohio and stayed away from

New

> England and the South (both of which are r-less, as British

English,

> if my memory serves me well)?
> I still like my scenario better.
>

I just thought of another irritating fact. Upstate New York was
colonized by the Dutch (note the spelling and pronounciation of (the
originally Native?) Schenectady). The main entry route for immigrants
was up the Hudson river and along the canal from Albany
(Rensselaersburg) to Lake Erie.
And there are a few things about Pennsylvania Dutch that puzzle me.
Of course I know it's supposed to be German, not Dutch. But some of
the samples I've seen were not High German but Low German, which is
very close to Dutch. Pennsylvania Dutch was studied very early by
German linguist, who were happy to find some Deutschtum in the New
World. Would they have classified it as "probably a Dutch dialect"?

> Torsten