449: Non-Rhotic-R Mar 1, 2016

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It's Super Tuesday! You probably noticed that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump speak with different accents, even though they are both from NYC, born in the 1940's only around 5 years apart. At this point in history, accents were changing to try to distinguish ourselves from the English. Before WWII, the Americans employed the non-rhotic 'r', which is when the 'r' is dropped following a vowel, preceding a consonant (such as in 'hard'), like the way the English still pronounce words. This persisted in rural areas and working class areas, explaining why Sanders uses it (having grown up in working class Brooklyn) while Trump, having been born into money, uses the rhotic 'r'.

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