pronuncation of BURY

[Mark A Mandel]

On Mon, 22 Jul 2002, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

#Actually, "Lars" with a devoiced final consonant is already a
#modification from the Norwegian /sh/ (for "rs"), but, just like
#Polish "rz" (which is simply /zh/, we don't seem to be able to resist
#those /r/s, so we get two stages of modification /lash/ -> /lars/ ->
#/larz/.

Isn't that /sh/ actually a retroflex? Or is that only in Swedish?

I think that the process you're positing is more complicated than
necessary for most US speakers outside of the Norwegian settlement area
in the upper Midwest. I *read* the name "Lars" in many sources long,
long before I ever heard any authentic pronunciation of it, and the
default English phonemic realization of that orthography is /larz/.
Spelling pronunciation is the simplest explanation.

-- Mark A. Mandel