--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> It is often thought that Old English /r/ was a "continental"-style
trill. Actually, West Saxon /r/ seems to have been retroflex.
Tristram (1995) supposes that the retroflection was a spontaneous
innovation that developed in Wessex about the 9th century and spread
throughout southern and western England as far as Watling Street.
Tristram notes that the West Country retroflex /r/ has also crossed
the Channel and is now commonly heard in Trégor Breton (one observer
has compared that dialect to "Welsh as spoken by Americans").
>
> Piotr
I think I recall that Holland was partially resettled by Saxons
(place names like Sassenheim)?
Torsten