Why is the vowel in "work" consistently rhotic in AAVE, Boston, or

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Mars80
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Why is the vowel in "work" consistently rhotic in AAVE, Boston, or

Postby Mars80 » 2022-08-21, 11:52

Why is the vowel in "work" consistently rhotic in AAVE, Boston, and New York English even among speakers who are otherwise nonrhotic?

I have heard various speakers of these accents and something I have noticed is that they always pronounce words like "work" rhotically even if they are nonrhotic or variably rhotic elsewhere.

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TheStrayCat
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Re: Why is the vowel in "work" consistently rhotic in AAVE, Boston, or

Postby TheStrayCat » 2022-08-21, 11:59

Just an amateur conjecture: maybe to distinguish it from walk?


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