ABSTRACT
Term in (generative) historical phonology that denotes the inverse ‘reinterpretation’ of an original phonological rule. For example, in many varieties of English, postvocalic r is vocalic, but becomes non-vocalic in an intervocalic environment. This is also true in spoken language when an ‘intervocalic’ environment is spontaneously created by a following word that begins with a vowel. The inverse view reinterprets the vocalization of r, which does not occur in this environment, as r-insertion in hiatus; the original exception then occurs as a new rule. Thus, r is even inserted where it, historically, should not appear: the-idea-r-of-it, Americar-and-Europe.
