Provenance of /Or/ > [ar] / __@ ?

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 10:46 AM, Gordon, Matthew J.
<GordonMJ at missouri.edu> wrote:
> So, traditional St. Louis speech distinguishes 'for' & 'four', 'or' & 'ore', etc.

Yes; "for or" = "far  are."

FWIW, this is true of some varieties of BE. It's very common. But I'm
afraid to try to generalize. When I moved to the Boston area, I was
really startled that the locals didn't use IPA r after thorn. I
couldn't even understand how it was possible not to use this r, from
an articulatory point of view. However, now, when I  listen to some
old R&B from my youth, i.e. 1945-65, I hear many instances of
Boston-style thr- used by black speakers. I just hadn't noticed them
before a couple of years or so ago, for some reason, despite my having
listened to these sides a gazillion times. Probably, if I listened for
_(f)or_, I'd hear instances of "(f)ore" as well as the standard-for-me
"far  are."

Youneverknow.

--
-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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