New England people changing "l" sounds to "r" sounds

[John DiFool]

[Inspiring thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=507655)]

Years ago I used to make fun of my mom, who is of French-Canadian descent tho she was born and lived in New Hampshire, when she would pronounce words like "calm" & "palm" as "carm" & "parm". Well, when I went to my grandmother's funeral a few weeks back, I met her sister (my aunt) for the first time in about 8 years, and the aunt also said "carm". Is there some odd facet of the French language which would account for this oddity?

[elfkin477]

I've lived in New England my entire life and have never heard anyone do this. Maybe you're mom's family is just weird, huh? :D

[RealityChuck]

In New England, it's much more common to drop the "r" -- "cah" for "car"

My graduate English professor said that US English is divided into "r-less" or "r-ful" dialects (the official term is "non-rhotic" and "rhotic," but this is a guy who created his on phonetic transcription because he didn't like the IPA version). Ask people to say the word "murderer" and you can figure out which one it is.

[PatriotGrrrl]

In New England, it's much more common to drop the "r" -- "cah" for "car"


True. But when Norm Abrams builds a chest of draws, he makes sure the draws will fit by checking the drawering.

drawer => draw, but drawing => drawering

[Polycarp]

There's a hamlet in Northern New York, between Massena and Potsdam, called Norfolk -- or rather, written Norfolk, pronounced "Norfork."

Other than that, I got nothin' -- and a couple of branches of my family were, separately, of French Canadian, and northern New England ancestry, so it probably would have shown up if it were widespread.