Idea/ideal

[Wilson Gray]

On Jan 21, 2005, at 4:54 AM, neil wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       neil <neil at TYPOG.CO.UK>
> Subject:      Re: Idea/ideal
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>
>> Sigh. To quote Leon, I hate to be the one to break it to you, Jerry,
>> but I
>> know librarians who say "liberry" and "liberrian." I'm afraid that
>> "library"
>> is going to follow "February" right down the tube.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
> Not to worry. Your missing 'r' finds it's unnecessary place in one UK
> arts
> commentator's pronunciation on BBC2 TV: she says 'drawring' for
> 'drawing'.
>

Yes. That "r" is very common in the Northeast of the US - New England,
in fact. Once, I overheard a conversation between two local women in
Cambridge, Massachsetts. One, describing a trip out west, said to her
friend, "While I was in California - "California," that's the way they
pronounce it out there." At that time, I lived in California. I
thought, somewhat indignantly, "WTF! Is she saying that Californians
don't know how to pronounce the name of their own state?! How bad is
that?!" I was able to relax, though, as soon as I recalled that
Boston-area locals are themselves so inept at speaking English that
*they* think that "California " is pronounced "Califo'nia"! This is the
same - well, close enough to being the same for government work -
pronunciation used by country folk in East Texas.

-Wilson Gray