--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> >
>
> That's interesting, since the American War of Independence was in
> that period, and since the Americans (at least in the standard
(low,
> Dutch-influenced?) dialect that spread from New York) didn't
> drop /r/'s. Any indication that this had become a English/American
> shibboleth already then?
>
> Torsten
Other list members are better qualified to answer your question, but
I'd just like to point out some errors in your statement. There was
of course no single "standard" dialect of American English in the
period in question, and the most influential dialect in the eventual
creation of the current standard spread from Pennsylvania, not New
York, and was not influenced by Dutch. R-dropping did in fact spread
to certain American dialects, mostly those of large port cities with
strong commercial ties to London; Boston, New York (!) and Charleston
are the best-known examples. These dialects remain r-less to this
day, and in some cases have spread to larger areas (e.g. eastern New
England) over the past 200 years.
Jedediah