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A history of hyper-rhoticity in English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2007

DEREK BRITTON
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh, Dept of Linguistics and English Language, David Hume Tower, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JX, UK, eladabs@srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk

Abstract

This article investigates the history of what Wells (1982), in his account of present-day accents of English, calls ‘hyper-rhoticity’. That is, the appearance, in rhotic accents, of epenthetic, unetymological rhyme-/r/, usually taking the form of /r/-colouring in modern accents. It is attested most commonly in final unstressed syllables, but may also occur in syllable rhymes after a long, stressed vowel. The article traces the history of this phenomenon and attempts to show that Early Modern English data which have hitherto been interpreted as evidence for loss of /r/ in such contexts are better attributed to hyper-rhoticity. It is also argued here, in an addendum, that not to accept claims for early /r/-loss in unstressed syllables has wider implications for the history of English phonology. That is, to reject theories of loss of /r/ in final unstressed syllables demands rejection of the notion of early articulatory weakening of /r/ in this context, which has been seen as a prelude to the spread of weakening to other contexts, leading ultimately to loss of rhoticity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Cambridge University Press 2007

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