A.u.e: Does anyone else have these two different "-ire"s? Consciously or unconsciously? With the same distribution as mine or different? When I come to think about it, it appears that words in your first list are slightly shorter sounds.

If the answer to my long question (the first one) is positive, are there any rules? I don't think so. What rule produces "Michigander" for "resident of Michigan"? Oh, I could probably come up with one. The rule would

In Received Pronunciation, "bother" is (bA.D@), "father" is (fA:D@). That is, they're the same vowel except that the one in "bother" is rounded, while the one in "father" is not. And the one in