Query: /w/ for /r/ in any British dialects?

[Amy West]

On 11/25/13 12:01 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Sun, 24 Nov 2013 20:39:32 +0000
> From:    "Cohen, Gerald Leonard"<gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Query:/w/  for/r/  in any British dialects?
>
> Are there any British dialects where/w/  can be substituted for/r/, such as "gwand" for "grand" and "dweadful" for "dreadful"? This feature turned up in the speech of at least some 19th century (U.S.) "dudes", who somehow took it to be refined British speech.  Was it based on anything actually spoken in Britain?
>
> Gerald Cohen
Yep. I hear it all the time on BBC reporters on BBC World News and PRI's
The World. I asked a Communication Sciences & Disorders prof. and yes,
it's not a speech impediment, it's an accent.

---Amy West

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