Pronunciation of 'Terrorism'.

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 11:21 AM 10/1/01 -0500, you wrote:
>I have been noticing wide variation in the pronunciation of 'terrorism',
>etc.  It seems to depend on just how rhotic the speaker's accent is.
>Everyone I hear on TV seems to have problems with it, including
>politicians and newspeople themselves.
>
>Some do it with one R, others with two, and people like me do it with three.
>
>Some people do it with two syllables, others (like me) with three.
>
>I noticed Guiliani hit all three Rs with a nice General American accent in
>his UN speech, but then spoiled the effect about how we 'drawer a line'.
>
>
>
>----------
>Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

"terrorism" with three Rs?  I suppose if Rudy slowed down on this bookish
word, he might do three.  (But what's this General American stuff?)  My
undergrad students noticed, by the way, that Bush said "terror" with no
final R [tEr@]; and Jim Lehrer pronounces his name [lEr@].  Texas is at
least partially r-less, apparently.

But then Rudy relaxed and let his NYC intrusive /r/ in--nice!

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm