The R in Wash

[Johnny_L.A]

@guizot

What do you mean by “some people”? That in some areas there were groups of people who for one reason or another couldn’t produce that phoneme like others around them? Because a baby is born with the capability of producing any sound in any language or dialect. When the child grows up he or she habituates to only those sounds in his or her environment, and only then, over time, that makes it difficult to produce sounds which are “contrary” to those the child is hearing.

I was thinking of the origin, not someone who grows up around an accent that already exists.

[Mister_Rik]

@Colophon

But “wash” in a southern English accent is pronounced “wosh”, to rhyme with “posh”. There’s no “a” vowel there at all.

We pronounce it that way here in Washington state, USA, too.

@CalMeacham

I figure they save up all those dropped "R"s and use they at the ends of words that don’t have them, like “Saw”

I female comedian from Boston did a bit about this many years ago. She explained it as if telling a bedtime story to a small child. It was a story about how the lettah R was feeling left out and unwelcome in Boston, and so it got mad and flew away. It flew and flew and flew all ovah the country until it saw Texas, whereupon it dove down and landed in the middle of the word “warsh”

Though most people here in Washington say it with no R (the exceptions tend to be immigrants from the Southern US and their descendents), there are a surprising number of people here who put an “S” in the middle of Leavenworth (pronouncing it “Leavensworth”). I don’t get that one at all.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Phase42

there are a surprising number of people here who put an “S” in the middle of Leavenworth (pronouncing it “Leavensworth”). I don’t get that one at all.

We used to live in Westminster when I was very little. Even though I don’t remember it, I still cringe when I hear people say ‘West Minister’. (And I used to work with a girl who’d get upset if anyone used the Spanish pronunciation of San Pedro – and she’s Hispanic.)

[newhome]

4 sibs (1945, 1947, 1949, 1953) grew up in Dayton OH until 1961, moved to southern IN.
Youngest, and only youngest, says “warsh” - neither parent (1 central OH farm kid, other SW OH farm kid) used it.
I’ve also heard it in the Ozarks, fwiw - I consider it a “hillbilly” pronunciation (nothing wrong with being a hillbilly ('lessn you have a choice, of course )

[Rachael_Rage]

@ivylass

My dad grew up in Iowa…he says “warsh” and has a hard time pronouncing “aluminum.”

My grandmother (raised in rural Nebraska; RIP) ‘warshed’ her clothes. She also had a great deal of trouble with the melting pot:

She would serve pasta with a can of par-MEE-zhen cheese.

She would make tacos out of tor-TILL-uhs.

But my absolute favorite? That big thing in the living room with cushions wasn’t a ‘couch’ or a ‘sofa,’ it was a davenport. Never in my life have I heard anyone else use that term.