Timeline for When do I pronounce a non-existent “r” between adjacent vowel sounds?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
28 events
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| May 15, 2015 at 20:40 | history | edited | Tushar Raj | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited body; edited title
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| May 15, 2015 at 19:37 | history | edited | Tushar Raj | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 8 characters in body
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| Jan 21, 2015 at 7:20 | answer | added | Xavier Stockton | timeline score: -2 | |
| Jun 16, 2014 at 7:28 | vote | accept | Tushar Raj | ||
| Jun 14, 2014 at 13:22 | comment | added | mudri | As for why it's included in those phrases, I'll take your first example: “I saw a movie”. In non-rhotic accents, “saw” is homophonous with “soar” - /sɔː/, with the “dawn” vowel. The ‘r’ isn't pronounced because it's in the syllable coda. But when ‘r’ can become part of an onset, as in “We soar over the fields”, it sometimes is pronounced (“soar over” -> /sɔːɹˈəʊvə/). Hence, non-rhotic speakers sometimes get into the habit of using /ɹ/ as a buffer consonant between a long vowel and another vowel, because the long vowel sounds as if it was followed by a silent ‘r’. Hence /sɔː ə/ -> /sɔːɹə/. | |
| Jun 14, 2014 at 7:40 | answer | added | Clonkex | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 15:42 | comment | added | Mitch | It's an intrusive-r in some non-rhotic dialects. It is not part of standard English (British or American or otherwise). If you want to sound more accurately like one of these non-rhotic dialects, then you would use it. If you want to speak standard English then you should not use it. | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 14:26 | answer | added | Phil Perry | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 14:09 | comment | added | Phil Perry | My mother swears that she saw a advertising sign in a Portland, Maine department store in the early '60s: "Pahkers on Sale" [Parkas on Sale]. | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 12:32 | comment | added | Michael Hardy | I once heard of a professor of English calling a Shakespearean play "Orthello". When I hear an "r" in "the idea is", pronounced as "the idearis", or other instances of this intrusive "r", it's as if you stabbed me with a pin at that moment: it distracts from what is being said. | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 10:01 | answer | added | Siôn le Roux | timeline score: 25 | |
| Jun 13, 2014 at 0:58 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | The only occasion I've encountered where one has to use it is in the joke, "What do you call a one-eyed dinosaur?" "A doyouthinkhesaurus". | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 22:56 | comment | added | jules | Obviously, you don't HAVE to use it. Having said that... As far as I know, it's just a way people speak at times, and it's part of the RP standard. The "r" seems to have the same function as the "n" in "an" (eg. an apple) or the glide in "The ZOO is" [the zoowiz]. However, as a non-native speaker, I don't use it myself, and to my ear it sounds half old-fashioned, half jocular. hth. | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 22:27 | answer | added | Monty Harder | timeline score: -3 | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 22:23 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/477214675772272641 | ||
| Jun 12, 2014 at 20:48 | comment | added | Chris Cirefice | The character Hagrid from the Harry Potter series is a good example of the usage. As others have said, it's not a grammar nor phonetics issue, it's purely accentual. | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 19:32 | comment | added | James Kingsbery | FWIW, Other than "idear," I've never heard of the other ones you mention. | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 18:02 | comment | added | User1000547 | @Gabe as we say in Boston - "Where we never pronounce the letter 'r' unless we have a good idear." | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 16:56 | comment | added | BenB | FWIW, it (almost?) never shows up in Canadian English. | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 15:25 | answer | added | Dancrumb | timeline score: 35 | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 14:02 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | This has nothing to do with grammar. | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 14:02 | history | edited | tchrist♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
typography
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| Jun 12, 2014 at 13:42 | comment | added | Gabe | The funny thing is that speakers with this accent don't just insert 'r's, they elide them elsewhere! For example, "I saw a car" might be pronounced "I sawr a cah". | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 13:42 | history | edited | tchrist♦ |
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| Jun 12, 2014 at 12:42 | comment | added | KChaloux | I believe the phantom 'r' you're hearing is entirely an artifact of regional accent. I live in New Hampshire, and tend to hear a lot of the older folks here include it. In the younger generation, the accent has shifted more towards General American, and the 'r' isn't included. (We've been known to make fun of people who say "sawr" and "lawr" instead of "saw" and "law"). | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 11:03 | vote | accept | Tushar Raj | ||
| Jun 16, 2014 at 7:28 | |||||
| Jun 12, 2014 at 10:33 | answer | added | Martin McCallion | timeline score: 43 | |
| Jun 12, 2014 at 10:28 | history | asked | Tushar Raj | CC BY-SA 3.0 |