/r/ deletion and insertion

[Damien Hall]

Dear Nancy

Maybe you just didn't cite it in your e-mail, but I wonder whether the kind of
sporadic /r/-insertion and -deletion that you are writing about is at all
connected to the more systematic (for those who have it in their dialect)
/r/-insertion in 'wash' > /wOrS/, 'Washington' > /wOrSiNt at n/?

I believe this is common in the US Midland as defined by Labov, Ash and Boberg
(2006) *Atlas of North American English*, but you'd want to check with someone
who really knows, or in that volume, to be sure.

(Key to my ASCII IPA:  lower-case characters are what you would expect them to
be;  /O/ = open o; /S/ = esh; /N/ = engma.)

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org