The New York City Accent: History and Change
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Linguist William Labov records people speaking naturally by involving them in storytelling. Labov spent 40 years studying the various accents of New York City. He says it was fashionable among all New Yorkers until the end of World War II to pronounce the internal and climatic 'R's in words as a vowel. These days, that Britishism is often seen as a sign of working class speech.
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