Back

Just listening to a discussion of Little Women on the Allusionist podcast. This thought came into my head again:

Louisa May Alcott grew up and lived in New England, where people famously say “Pahk the cah in Hahvahd Yahd.” Why, then, do American actors and scholars rhotacize the R in the name Marmee?

Would Alcott not have pronounced this to rhyme with “mommy”? Isn’t that what she meant? Mahmee?