In the northeast, particularly around Boston, R's are held in low esteem unless at the beginning of a word--so if you must pronounce it--convert it to a "ra" sound. They are capable of pronouncing the "R" sound because they append it to most words which ending with the letter "a."
Regarding "Laboratory" I've always used the "British" pronunciation (though I didn't consider it a British pronunciation) as does my wife, daughter and granddaughter.
The same goes for "Lavatory." I remember a coarse bar soap called "Lava" when I was a kid and I knew the verb "Lavar" in Spanish meant "to wash." "Lava" in Latin derived Spanish means "you, he, shewash(es)." So to me--from the time I was a little kid--the word "lavatory" meant a place where you wash or bathe--not necessarily a toilet or ty bach.
I regarded the more common American pronunciations of "laboratory" and "lavatory" as one of those elitist "eastern seaboard" pronunciations. I was amazed as a kid hearing JFK pronounce America as "Amer-i-ker" and Cuba as "Cu-ber." But when an "R" was actually present in a word he pronounced it as "ah," as in "I'm going to a picnic in the P-ah-k o-vah by Hah-vahd.
Especially if that "fowr dowr fowrd" has a "fowr barrow carbawrator!"
Thanks John for the recommend (and Jack for the heads up on the stateside links)!
Gaynor, I noticed the recommended links too. There's some good readin' in there.
There is definitely a "pecking order" in the five boroughs of NYC. Manhattan-eese, like the surrounding skyscrapers, towers over the other inferior dialects in the outer boroughs. But those residents needn't feel slighted because there's always New "Joy-zee" to ridicule.
On another note: I think fellow Missourian, Samuel Clemens a.k.a Mark Twain,was a master at writing accents into his literary yarns. From Huckleberry Finn to Joan of Arc. In my opinion, that is a very hard thing to "pull-off." Emily Bronte also comes to mind when she recorded the Yorkshire accent in Wuthering Heights.
In my experience "either" is frequently pronounced "ee-ther" and "neither" is more often pronounced "nye-ther" except when used in certain phrases.
In NYC the Boroughs (especially Queens and Brooklyn) have distinct accents as well as those inferior citizens across the Hudson in New "Joy-zee" and beyond.
Our family has always used the former when at home. At the market we normally say the latter unless it's at the farmers market in Oregon County where we might have to resort to using the word "maters" to be understood.
I've heard about that too. Supposedly, it's especially popular in New York City. I predict that it will come to an abrupt end when they discover what the British slang for "cigarette" is or what the meaning of "buggery" is. Those words would never do in this brave new world of political correctness.
Christopher, as Jack said, the term "seaboard" simply means "coast." So, technically, the "Eastern Seaboard" would mean all states bordering the Atlantic from the Southern tip of Florida to the Northern border between Maine and Canada.
However, there's a secondary implied meaning usually limited to political discussions. What many commentators mean when say the "Eastern Seaboard" is a relatively small, but densely populated region of the country beginning just north of Boston,Massachusettsthen proceeding south along the coast to somewhere just south of Washington D.C. This area is home to some of the nation's oldest, largest cities.
A great posting John (and Jack).
The "Woad" initially gave the ancient Britons advantage over the heavily armored Romans. At least, as I remember Caesar's account, when his troops first attempted to disembark, the impatient Briton "Welsh" defenders had waded chest deep into the water and easily prevailed against heavily weighted Romans who were attempting to wade ashore. Eventually Caesar was forced to wait for the tide and the wind to run his ships aground giving his men a chance to jump to dry ground.
