[Magdalen] Hon" etc.

[Cantor03 at aol.com]

I had a long telephone conversation this morning with an  old
friend from Baltimore.  I had forgotten the tendency of the  "Balmereese"
to sprinkle their speech with the word, "hon" which to me is a  little
unnerving.  This is especially true with this friend who is a  Harvard
graduate, and one of the most educated persons I know.  He  does,
however, pronounce his "r's".
 
I just reviewed again the oddity that the Philadelphia and Baltimore  areas
("Mid-Atlantic Accent") are the only East Coast USA locations never  to
have developed non-rhotic speech (not pronouncing internal and 
terminal "r's", as in "I paaked the caa in the Havaad Yaad",  for
"I parked the car in the Harvard Yard").
 
All the rest of the major ports - Portland, Maine, Portsmouth,  NH,
Boston, New York City, Portsmouth, VA, Charleston, SC, and  Savannah,
GA, picked up the new, non-rhotic speech construct of the upper 
classes of SE England in the late 18th century.  These ports  did
a lot of business with the English, and dutifully went non-rhotic.
 
The reason for holding on to the original rhotic accent, present in 
all English speakers before about 1790, in the Mid-Atlantic  region
of Baltimore and Philadelphia was due to the overwhelming influx  of
Irish, Scottish, West Country (England) immigrants who  pronounced
"r's".
 
 
David Strang.