Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mark Mandel]

Jonathan Lighter:
> >> Â My friend from rural Middle Tennessee - a distinguished attorney - always
> >> Â says "fum."
> >>
> >> Â Other than that and maybe one or two other items, he's got all his r's.

MM:
>And even that isn't r-lessness (arrhoticity), which AFAIK refers to
>loss of *postvocalic* /r/.

Laurence Horn:
> Why isn't the /r/ in "farm" an instance of postvocalic /r/?

I assumed that this was Jonathan's friend's pronunciation of "from";
JL didn't say.

--
Mark Mandel

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