Starting from the assumption that language is where people are or go=, factors such as the industrialisation and its consequent processes of urbanisation do not simply generate a migratory movement. They can also lead to a change in the individuals life style that directly affects their social as well as linguistic values and attitudes. That is, industrialisation and urbanisation engender migrations from, normally, rural to urban areas that can easily alter their relative linguistic systems. The aim of this paper is to present a study in progress on the influence of extralinguistic factors on intralinguistic elements, particularly the impact of the external on the internal history of the English language, through the analysis of the possible cause and effect relationship between the development of steamers during the Second Industrial Revolution and the behaviour of post-vocalic /r/ at different stages in the linguistic history of New York City.

intralingüística, extralingüística, /r/ postvocálica, Great Divide, Inglés Británico, Inglés Norteamericano, contacto dialectal