odd (slight) Nonrhoticity in bettina levy's amerikan english
@bettinalevyisdetermined
i wish to point out to you (if u had not already known urself) that u hav an odd form of lack of r pronunciation on words like forward (often being pronounced like "foe ward") with the first r noise disappearing all together yet strangly keeping inline with standard pronunsiation with the sekond r noise. its rather odd and kould u think of any possable reson u do this / hav u notissed anyone else around u also do this
get bak to me when possable and
God bless ♥
Wow, you know what? I actually didn't consciously realize that about myself! That I didn't pronounce the first r in forward... I think I didn't even realize that there *was* a first r, as if my eyes always ignore it when reading through that word... Perhaps that's the way it sounds because I also tend to read fast?
Fore-words, back-words... Back-words, foe-words... Yeah, even saying it out loud to myself slowly, saying it "properly" feels odd to me. Don't know how to explain that!
Edit: I asked my mom "how do you pronounce the opposite of backwards", and she said it like "foe-wards" as well! Maybe it's her New York accent or something? But yeah, there you go. I guess I got it from my mama. XD
Another possible explanation is called "assimilation" (if I recall correctly). It's a phonelogical phenomenon [thing that happens when you make sounds] that occurs when you have sound A being shaped in one part of the mouth but it's far away from where sound B needs to be formed. Because the human body is naturally economical, your tongue takes a shortcut.
In other words, if you want to pronounce /ˈfɔrwərd/ casually, you'd have to go from the vowel /ɔ/ at the front of the mouth to the /r/ at the back of the mouth and the /w/ at the front in fractions of a second. That's a lot of effort for a tired, overworked tongue! It can get the same signal across with half the effort by dropping the /r/ or the /w/, and frequently does.
i think u may very well be right
iv done a bit of searching around and it apiers to be a noted sound change bekoming ever more popular in amerikan accents although (as far as im awair) not a single person knows what region or part of the usa this phenomenon has originated. the only thing i find is people noting it moving into thier region (usualy with unplesent asociations) so i must therefore assume its origin is from a highly populated / influential region of the U.S. mostly iv seen this noted on the east koast (from what iv found) and the many historikal non rhotik accents (both north and south) that still hav influence on the modern language kould hav made this "assimilation" so much easyer to akkour than in other historikly rhotik parts of the U.S. (like where i kome from)
Assimilation isn't a purely American phenomenon, although I don't doubt your research as to dialects. It's a descriptive term for something that happens to all people who speak quickly, in all languages. It also happens with /l/.
Anything that requires tongue movement.
oh of korse its not purly amerikan and i didnt mean to inssinuate such (if it sounded like that). another thing id like to mention is if its seen as socialy acceptable to do said changes. like for instance our kulture is kurrently more open to change almost as a protest against the establisment through words. the kurrent people on top are not favored by the people (as in the vast majority of amerikans dislike the established ruling kulture of amerika), whilest nieche subgroups are favored, hense the population favoring effekted, less standard forms of speech as a part of our kurrent kulture. bekause the things of the elite are seen as almost mockable now. but a kulture built around koppying the elites is more resistant to changes (unless the eliets do said changes) as what they do is seen as the standard varient & with them being usualy edukated in standardized styles change is far rarer. this would be inkreadebly true in this age of publik edukation, radios, & televisions but its just not our kulture to kopy the (now seen as) stuffy and overly formal cultural ways of traditional eliet roles. but in a society that takes after traditional eliet roles more realization that u are saying a word diffrent is often an invitation for ridikule (even if its an established form of speech dating bak 100 years).
