> > That is wonderful news. Now you just have to prove that
> > Baltimore was
> > founded by king Alfred.
>
> Actually, it was founded by Lord Calvert, whose big house was in
> Baltimore, Ireland.
>
This is what happened in Europe: with the arrival of the railway,
towns of any importance (old towns with a railway, new towns at
railway junctions) had four men who had an education in the big city:
the station master, the doctor, the priest and the school teacher.
That number meant they could meet on Sundays to play l'hombre or whist
in the home of one of them, after the school marm wife had cooked
dinner, which is what they were since no one is more conscious of
getting socially ahead from the boorish masses they came from than
they are, or they wouldn't have chosen that job. This is the beginning
of what used to be the Standard Language in the European countries. It
would be strange if USA weas an exception. I don't think the school
marm would want to teach her pupils to speak like the frontiersmen.
And since the Sinter Klaas -> Santa Claus plays a large role in the
American pantheon (just kidding), the channel which brought that deity
from the Dutch would be conducive to language peculiarities too.
Remember that similar religions imply cultural influence.
BTW I read in the archive that according to Miguel the retroflex r
occurs in both Leids and Rotterdams.
Torsten