performance/preformance

[Aaron E. Drews]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2000, Prof. Roly Sussex wrote:

}Australian English is non-rhotic, and so has no post-vocalic 'r' (except in one
}small rural dialect).
}
}But recently I have heard a number of speakers, mainly under about 35,
}pronounce words like "performance" as "pr&formance". This isn't a case of
}metathesis, since there is no &r to metathesize. And it's an odd innovation,
}since it makes the syllable onset more rather than less complex.

Does Aussie English have intrusive-r/linking-r?  If so, there might be
some hidden metathesis going on.  If not....?

There has been talk on the ADS list about "modren metathesis", which seems
to be the same thing, but it only seems to happen in rhotic varieties.

--Aaron

________________________________________________________________________
Aaron E. Drews                               The University of Edinburgh
aaron at ling.ed.ac.uk                  Departments of English Language and
http://www.ling.ed.ac.uk/~aaron       Theoretical & Applied  Linguistics

"MERE ACCUMULATION OF OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE IS NOT PROOF"
        --Death