Re: American Dutch dialects

> Consider also when final /-r/ began to disappear from English, where
> it started and how long it took to spread. I've heard it said the
> change came around Cromwell's time, but was that when it was picked
> up by the elite in London --

Without knowing too much of the details, I'll make a general remark:
Cromwell's revolution seems just the kind of thing which turns the
sociolect pyramid upside down - high becoming, low becoming high.

> as French /r/ was by the elite in Paris during the Revolution?

No, the /r/ > /R/ thing was ancien régime, from when France seemed a
winning proposition, ie until it lost the colonial wars with England
which gave the French public the idea that perhaps this democracy
thing they had in Holland and England was not such a bad thing after all.


Torsten