Date:  Wed, 15 Dec 1993 21:12:04 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ARIZVMS.BITNET>

Subject: Re: modren metathesis



Don--

    Interesting question re what was going on in Winnie's head re "modren".

I wonder if the case is not unlike those anachronistic speakers who persist

in pronouncing <pretty> with a pre-vocalic /r/ rather than the syllabic (or

post-vocalic) version. (With respect to the direction of the future, note

earlier <thretti> and <brid>.) While hers was somewhat (though obviously not

entirely) individualistic, it does raise the question, how much attention do

/prEtiy/ speakers pay to /pUrdiy/ (or [prdi]) speakers, or attempt to correct

in their direction? History says, in the case of <thirty> and <bird>, they

must, but a lot of items bet

ween get ignored for some reason or another. We

don't really know until after the fact, and then it's too late to find out.

    --Rudy Troike