Episode 160: Approximant-ly English
The History of English Podcast
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The Evolution of the L and R Sounds Over the Years
The modern standard r sound is the dominant r sound in england, north america and ireland. That implies that a word like runner was pronounced something like runer. And if that was the case, then we can see how that more modern r sound at the end would have provided an ideal set up for the er sound as the various vowels merged together before that r sound.
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