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How rhoticity became /r/-sandhi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2026

Jennifer Hay  and
Andrea Sudbury
Jennifer Hay*
Affiliation:
University of Canterbury
Andrea Sudbury*
Affiliation:
King's College London
*
Hay, Department of Linguistics, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand [jen.hay@canterbury.ac.nz]
Sudbury, Department of Management, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Bldg., 150 Stamford St., London SE1 9NH, United Kingdom [andrea.sudbury@kcl.ac.uk]
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Abstract

It is well known that nearly all nonrhotic dialects of English exhibit linking and/or intrusive /r/. What is not known are the details about how linking and intrusive /r/ emerge. This article provides the first empirical data on the diachronic relationship between the decline of rhoticity and the emergence of /r/-sandhi in a dialect of English. The results are based on an analysis of rhoticity and /r/-sandhi in the speech of New Zealanders born between 1860 and 1925, dates that encompass the formative years of New Zealand English. The results demonstrate that the /r/-sandhi system in New Zealand English emerged gradually and overlapped with the decline of rhoticity. This is a significant advance on previous descriptive work on this topic and provides results that should both inform and constrain potential phonological theories of /r/-sandhi.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 81 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 799 - 823
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by the Linguistic Society of America

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