Word-final [Ng] in BE?

[Wilson Gray]

Many Sain Louis rappers use pronunciations like "gangba[Ng@]."

I've just heard one of the actresses on the VH1 aeries ask,

"Who amo[N g]us hasn't been hurt?"


I've heard this type of pronunciation probably thousands of times,
here of late. To steal in paraphrase from some anonymous poster on
another site,

"I have a feeling that something is happening here that I'm not going
to like: language-change."

This kind of thing is supposed to be a feature of Yinglish, not of BE!
Why, During The War and much later, "finger" rhymed with "gangbanger,"
being pronounced with [AN at r]. In StL BE, [r] is generally retained
wherever, except in rapspeak and other get-down styles of speech. An
StL hip-hopper sings of "niggers" [nIg at z] hangng out on the corner of
"Natural Bridge (Blvd) and Fair [f^r] (Avenue)," with the ordinary sE
articulation of /r/ in utterance-final position. (Fur Avenue runs
alongside Furgrounds P[O]rk, which park has nothing to do with the '04
Saint Louis World's Fur.)

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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