Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?

[Dan Goncharoff]

Is your issue with the vowel sound, or the ending?

DanG


On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 9:04 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Query: Can "yours" rhyme dialectally with "purse"?
>
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>
> A colleague told me today of a country-music song he heard in which
> "yours" rhymes with "purse", and he wonders whether such a feature exists
> dialectally in English. Or is it an artificial creation of the songwriter?
>
> The song is about a woman at a bar who has to leave at closing time. She
> forgets her purse
> and then comes back looking for it.  The woman sings:
> "Ah think ah left my purse,"
> and the bartender sings in response:
> "Ah think it's yurse."
>
> Is anyone familiar with this feature?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
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