"R" is the hardest letter to learn ot pronounce, and that may be why the Hahvuhd student traditionally neglects it, a Purdue University speech expert declared last night.
McKenzie W. Buck has finished experiments with 91 midwestern children between the ages of five and eight and found that the "R" sound was the last to become a normal part of their speech.
Buck speculates that Harvard men and New Englanders in general, who have associated mainly with each other for centuries, may have become unwittingly sloppy about their speech.
Commenting on Buck's findings, Frederick C. Packard '20, assistant professor of Public Speaking, stated that the Harvard accent, far from omitting the "R," puts it just right. The "ah" sound in Hahvuhd is actually the best combination of the "A" and "R" sounds.
"Midwesterners tend to obscure their vowels by pronouncing their R's too heavily," Packard parried, but he admitted that the local "pak-yu-ca-in-Havud-Yad" variation ignores the "R" too much.
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