Surprise

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:57 AM -0500 2/17/09, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>This is variable in my speech, though the /r/ tends to be realized
>only in nonallegro speech. I expect this is true of most rhotic
>dialects. I don't THINK that I have deletion in "surmise"--but I am
>wary of self-reports (maybe it gets weakened variably in allegro
>speech).

I've used "su(r)prise" vs. "surpass" in class as an illustration of
frequency effects.  (The latter word, or other such, are less
frequent and consequently less likely to promote the fast-speech
deletion of the post-vocalic r.)  But it could also be partly the
upcoming /r/ in the next syllable.  What we'd need is a relatively
infrequent word like "surprime" or "surpress" or even "curtrail" (but
which, unlike these, actually exists) but I can't recall if I ever
came up with any.  (I see there's a word "surprisal", which I
wouldn't delete the first r in, while I typically do in "surprise".)

>
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>Other such words: surreal ...

In that the first r is suppressed?  Hmmm.


LH

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>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Randy Alexander <strangeguitars at GMAIL.COM>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Sent: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:07 am
>Subject: [ADS-L] Surprise
>
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>1. Does anyone with a rhotic dialect rhoticize the first "r" in
>"surprise" (I don't).
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>2. Does anyone know of any other words that in your rhotic dialect
>that have an unrhoticized postvocalic "r"?
>
>--
>Randy Alexander
>Jilin City, China
>My Manchu studies blog:
>http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu
>
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