--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> Read Wikipedia
>
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regional_phonology
>
> New York is NOT a rhotic dialect but Philadelphia is the only
> rhotic dialect on the East Coast
Dat's de toid time you tell me dat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_dialect#History :
'The origins of the dialect are diverse, and the source of many
features is probably not recoverable. Labov ... claims that the
vocalization and subsequent loss of (r) was copied from the
prestigious London pronunciation, and so it started among the upper
classes in New York and only later moved down the socioeconomic scale.
This aristocratic r-lessness can be heard, for instance, in recordings
of Franklin Roosevelt. After WWII, the r-ful pronunciation became the
prestige norm, and what was once the upper class pronunciation became
a vernacular one.'
So the r-lessness may not be original, which is what I proposed.
Torsten