R r

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, I say [ar]. I say [ar ei]. [ar ei dgi dgi...] Aw, you get  the idea.

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: R r
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On Sep 30, 2004, at 7:40 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: R r
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>
> Like my Southern students, I say "R."
>
> I say "R-A."
>
> R-A-G-G-M-O-P-P
>
> RAGGMOPP!!!!
>
> Doo-doo-doo-DAH-dee-ah-dah!!!!
>
> Sorry. It just came over me. (But I've never heard "arra.")
>
> JL

"RaggMopp" by the Ames Brothers was just about my most favoritest
record, when I was in the eighth grade. If I'd had an independent
income (parental attitude: "Why buy the record when you can hear the
song for free?"), I would have bought me a copy.

When you say that you say "R," do you mean that you say [a:], like the
Brits, or that you say [ar], like standard American-English speakers? I
assume that it's the latter.

-Wilson

>
>
> "Rachel E. Shuttlesworth" wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Rachel E. Shuttlesworth"
> Organization: University of Alabama Libraries
> Subject: Re: R r
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I heard this pronunciation from several of my BE-speaking middle school
> teachers (probably in their 70s now), natives of Alabama.
> Rachel
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: R r
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ---------
>>
>> As a child, I learned the name of the letter "R r" as [ar@]. (All of
>> the other letters had the local version of their standard names.) This
>> might be spelled "orra" (or "arra"?). I once heard the late Senator
>> Edward Brooke (R) of Massachusetts, who was a native of Virginia,
>> pronounce the call-letters of a radio station, WROR, as
>> "dubya-orra-oh-orra." I've been wondering, given that a native Texan
>> and a native Virginian both used this pronunciation, whether this
>> usage
>> is pan-Southern or whether the fact that we both used it was mere
>> coincidence or, perhaps, a feature only of BE. How say ye, fellow
>> Southrons?
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>
> --
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>
> Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
> CLIR Post-Doctoral Fellow
> University of Alabama Libraries
> Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0266
> Office: 205.348.4655/ Fax:205.348.8833
> rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu
>
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