Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Alison Murie]

On Jun 16, 2009, at 12:10 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Ahra-lessnes in white-Southern speech (UNCLASSIFIED)
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>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> My friend from rural Middle Tennessee - a distinguished attorney -
>> always
>> says "fum."
>>
>> Other than that and maybe one or two other items, he's got all his
>> r's.
>
> And even that isn't r-lessness (arrhoticity), which AFAIK refers to
> loss of *postvocalic* /r/.
>
> m a m
>
Maybe his "fum" is "firm."
AM

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