--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
> > AFAIK Southwestern England today has retroflex r's including
> > syllable-final, and I believe Shropshire does as well.
>
> Those sites I've seen present this 'retroflex r' in initial position.
> The interesting retroflex r is the syllable-final one which produces
> the preceding vowel to be r-colored. Do you have a reference on such a
> phoneme on the British.
>
I don't have a reference, but I've heard it. Up until recently
(perhaps a year ago) one of the characters on the British show
"Coronation Street" had a strongly retroflexed /r/ even in
syllable-final position, but he was definitely English and not North
American or Australian or other. I don't know where he hailed from
though. I have also seen various British people interviewed on TV
programs who had North-American style /r/'s, including syllable-final,
but otherwise had British pronunciation (the most recent one was a
program on children with extremely high IQ's). Again I can't remember
where they were from, but I know for sure that they were English from
England (their home town was indicated) and had noticeable
North-American-style /r/'s.
Andrew