spelling pronunciation--words in -or

[Randy Alexander]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 9:44 AM, James Harbeck <jharbeck at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> That faux-pretentious pronunciation has been current in actors'
> self-parody for quite some time; I remember it from the 1980s, and I
> don't think it was new then. (You can also hear "ac-TING!" and, more
> naturally, "ar-TISTE!")
>
> For Realtor and the others, it seems conceivable to me that the
> distinction from -er endings leads to the self-conscious emphasis of
> the vowel. The speaker doesn't want to be thought to be saying or
> intending "educater," "administrater," etc. For Realtor, though,
> there's an added impetus in that it's a trademarked designation (you
> must be a real estate licensee and member of the National Association
> of Realtors) and one that they want to defend as such -- and see
> properly spelled, which is an important aspect of defending a
> trademark. Emphasis on the -or in that word could, I suppose,
> influence the other words.

In 1966, Mr. Spock consistently pronounced -or endings as /or/ as a
secondary stress instead of the standard unstressed /er/.  Does
anybody know of any earlier examples?

--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China
My Manchu studies blog:
http://www.bjshengr.com/manchu

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