>Sergei, your glottopsychological idiosyncrasy isn't only due to a
>phonological variation related to a particular Slavic language. >Here in
>the US, it also can be regional. I grew up in the Merrimack >Valley north
>of Boston, MA and most of the folks with whom I >attended lower school and
>high school dropped the "r" in words like >"father" and added an "r" to the
>ends of words such as Korea. >Perhaps the culprit of this idiosyncrasy can
>be attributed to a >Slavic language [....]
Oh, vey. No, silly! It's definitely not Lithuanian. I'm afraid the diagnosis
is a rather advanced and terminal case of r-insertion, found in many English
dialects where non-initial, non-intervocalic "r" is usually no longer
pronounced (including New England).
This "r" is usually dropped... EXCEPT if it precedes another vowel, as in
the speech pattern of the UK band Oasis, reflected in their famous song,
"...champagne supernova-R-in the sky...". Yeah, I listen to Oasis. They make
great music, so what? Who are you to judge my musical tastes? :P
There are many other weird cases of retroflex "r": the "wash/warsh" pattern
in Newfoundlandese, for instance. We musn't blame the poor BaltoSlavic
languages for everything that goes on in the world. :)
- gLeN
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