Date:  Mon, 24 Jul 1995 15:09:33 EDT

From:  Douglas Bayer x3701 3NW <dbayer[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YUKON.HQ.ILEAF.COM>

Subject: idear



Can anyone point me to a convincing explanation of reports

that some Massachussans "simultaneously" drop their r's

and yet add extraneoous hard-r's, like idear and Florider?



I used to notice it, but haven't noticed it in years.



An "outsider" reported hearing these as a child when she

moved here from the midwest, and wasn't convinced with

any of the following possibilites I floated:



1) Where the standard dialect has two allophones, the dialect

  has one pronoounced halfway between, so an outsider always

  hears the opposite.



  (She said the difference was quite distinct.)



2) They may have retroflex and non-retroflex allophones for

  different social registers. Again, outsiders notice the

  -r's in endings they never curl themselves, but fail to

  take notice of the reappearance of the same r's in their

  "real-r" endings.



  (She thought they could mix them in the same sentences.)



3) They may have overcorrected based on contamination from

  nearby dialects, perhaps for certain words associated with

  the wider world --the "Lon-Gisland effect" (It's New Yorkers

  and New Jerseyans, not Long-Islanders, who say Lon-Gisland.)



  (She thought they were pure Massachuttans)



Thanks,



Doug Bayer