inverness

[MacKenzie]

As a native New Englander, I'd theorized that the disappearance of the letter "R" was because New England had had 350 years of maritime history. You can not yell the sound of the letter "R" from weatherdeck to crow's nest, or from one ship to another (try yelling "lob-sterrrrr." It comes out "lob-stahhhh.") I assumed that whalers and fisherman developed this tendency to replace "R" with "AH", and then upon returning to shore would propagate this to their families.

I expect your theory is good. I have some friends from Maine that transplanted down heyah ta Nawth Ca-lie-nah. I always accuse them of "moving the R". As in, "Drawr me a pic-shah."

Next, I discovered in the mid-west, some folks had a tendency to add the letter "R" where none was required. People would "warsh" their clothes in "warter."

Also very prevalent in Southern Appalachia.