Can an intrusive R appear within one word?

Question

When the word ‘drawing’ is pronounced as /'drɔːrɪŋ/, is that R called intrusive? Is such pronunciation colloquial and unacceptable for formal address?

Answer 1

For people who use the term "intrusive r", it refers to linking /r/ whenever it occurs in a context where the letter R isn't written. It doesn't make a difference whether it is between words (as in saw it) or within a word (as in drawing).

Asking whether "intrusive r" is "colloquial and unacceptable for formal address" is a separate question. Pronouncing "intrusive r"s was traditionally viewed as incorrect but its frequency in current non-rhotic Southern British English accents is high enough that it doesn't make too much sense to call it "unacceptable" if you're trying to describe actual usage.

Answer 2

Yes, an r sound in the middle of a word can be called an "intrusive R."

Tom McLaughlin, a columnist for the Frederick News Post, said he's been on a near lifelong quest to locate the origin of the pronunciation, and he sent me an essay of his headlined " 'WaRshington' Just Sounds Right" to prove it.

So, what do we have here?

Linguists would call it -- in fact, do call it -- an "intrusive R." That's an R that's stuck somewhere unexpected. It happens, said Michael Montgomery, an emeritus professor of linguistics from the University of South Carolina, when the tongue "anticipates" the "sh" sound in "Washington" and curls a little bit.

"Catching the Sound of the City"

But this R in wa(r)shington seems to be a different phenomenon than the R in draw(r)ing. The former is a feature of what's called the midland accent.

The [midland] accent can be found in the swath of the country that extends west from Washington, taking in Maryland; southern Pennsylvania; West Virginia; parts of Virginia; southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; most of Missouri; and Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, much of Kansas and west Texas.

ibid

The midland accent is rhotic. Usually, the term "intrusive R" is used when describing non-rhotic accents. In a non-rhotic accent, an "intrusive R" is an R that's inserted between a word that ends in a vowel and one that begins in a vowel. These are also called "linking Rs." But not all linking Rs are intrusive.

Consider the following patterns:

In many non-rhotic accents, a linking /r/ is used after some vowels before other vowels. I'll use an R to show where this happens. The vowels I use are those from RP

/ɑː/
A staR is born
faR and wide
The ShahR of Persion
went to a spaR and had a sauna

/ɔ/
pouR it out
lawR and order
drawRing

/ɛː/
TheRe and then
FaiR and foul

/əː/
fuR and feather

/ə/
wateR and oil
RebeccaR and John
HeRe and there
BeeR and cigarettes

"Ask a linguist"

In the first set (the /ɑː/s), a non-rhotic accent would pronounce star /stɑː/, except when it's followed by a vowel, in which case it's /stɑːɹ/. That's a linking R, but it's not intrusive, because it's "supposed" to be there. On the other hand, the R in "went to a spaR and..." is intrusive.

Now look at the second (/ɔ/) set. Draw (/dɹɔː/) transforms into draw(r)ing (/ˈdɹɔɹɪŋ(ɡ)/) following the same pattern as law (/lɔː/) -> law(r) (/lɔɹ/) and order!

So, to answer your question with the specific example, yes, the R in draw(r)ing is an "intrusive R."