Re: My version

From: Rick McCallister
Message: 63238
Date: 2009-02-20

--- On Thu, 2/19/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:

> From: tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
> Subject: [tied] Re: My version
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 10:05 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
> <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- On Thu, 2/19/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > > From: tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...>
> > > Subject: [tied] Re: My version
> > > To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> > > Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 6:32 PM
> > > > Another problem is that regional dialects
> and accents are being
> > > > replaced, often reduced to rural or class
> accents/dialects.
> > > > R-less Englsh has been pretty much squeezed
> out of New York
> > > > where it was once the norm (another reason
> Torsten is wrong),
> > >
> > > Source?
> > >
> > >
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisler%27s_Rebellion
> > >
> >
> > Listen to old tapes of NYC dwellers from the 30s and
> 40s. They all
> > spoke r-less English. Even Archie Bunker dropped his
> r's. When I
> > was in undergrad, about half or so of the kids from
> NYC area
> > dropped their r's
>
> But I think I read somewhere that NYC actually existed
> before that time?
>
>
> Torsten

It may well have. Niuew Amsterdam goes back to c. 1625 and even under the Dutch, I believe most inhabitants spoke English --the Dutch speakers had larger percentages upriver. Then it became New York in 1664. I think it stretched up to Wall Street. Modern New York was crated in 1898 with the union of the 5 boroughs.
But until recently, Philadephia was the only area on the East Coast with r's