As we saw, English dialects are classed as either rhotic or non-rhotic. Rhotic dialects are those where [r] is pronounced after vowels: so words like ‘car’, ‘weird’, ‘born’ are pronounced with [r]. In these dialects, word pairs like ‘sauce’ – ‘source’ and ‘law’ – ‘lore’ are not homophones; the second item of the pair is pronounced with [r], while the first one is not; and the two words might have different vowel qualities too.

Non-rhotic dialects are ones where [r] is pronounced only before a vowel. After a vowel, [r] is not pronounced; but usually the vowel has a centring off-glide, producing diphthongs like [iə uə εə], or is long, as in [i: ε: ɔ: ɑ:]. Non-rhotic varieties include much of England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, and some parts of North America. In these varieties, pairs like ‘sauce’ – ‘source’ and ‘law’ – ‘lore’ are frequently homophones (check the north and thought vowels in Table 5.2). But these varieties usually have [r] as a linking sound. When r-final words join with vowel-initial words, [r] is inserted. So while ‘I fear nothing’ has no [r], ‘I fear evil’ usually does. This is often called linking-r.

This principle is often overgeneralized by non-rhotic speakers. If we take two verbs, ‘saw’ and ‘soar’, both pronounced [sɔ:] by non-rhotic Anglo-English speakers, and add the suffix <-ing>, we get ‘sawing’ and ‘soaring’. While ‘sawing’ can be pronounced , it can also be pronounced , homophonous with ‘soaring’. This is often called intrusive-r, because in these cases [r] is pronounced where historically there is no warrant for it. It happens between words too, as in ‘law[r] and order’, ‘Pizza[r] Express’, ‘vodka[r] and lime’. On the other hand, African American Vernacular English, which is reported by Labov (1972) as being mostly non-rhotic, sometimes drops [r] where rhotic speakers have it, e.g. story , Paris [pæs], Carol [kal].

From the point of view of modern speakers, linking- and intrusive-r are the same phenomenon: a way to join two vowels together by using an alveolar approximant. The term intrusive-r has its basis in the spelling system of English: the only difference between linking-r and intrusive-r is that intrusive-r refers to a linking-r when there is no in the spelling.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

ملتقى الكوثر الثالث يشهد عرض مشهد حواري بعنوان شريك العمر أم شريك الفكر؟

إقامة مسابقة (مرفأ النور) العلمية للمشاركات في فعاليات ملتقى الكوثر بنسخته الثالثة

ضمن ملتقى الكوثر الثالث.. ورشة تسلط الضوء على بناء الوعي القرآني لدى النساء

شعبة فاطمة بنت أسد (عليها السلام): ملتقى الكوثر منصةً لتحقيق وعي أسري مستند للقرآن الكريم

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

نظام غذائي شائع قد يؤدي إلى ارتفاع الكوليسترول الضار

تحذيرات هامة من عواقب تناول "أيبوبروفين" مع أدوية شائعة

علامات مبكرة للإيبولا يمكن الخلط بينها وبين الإنفلونزا

خبراء: الفيروسات مثل هانتا وإيبولا أصبحت أكثر شيوعا وفتكاً

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

الليلة.. هلال القمر يلتقي كوكبي الزهرة والمشتري

إيلون ماسك يخسر دعواه القضائية أمام أوبن إيه.آي

مهمة فضائية "أوروبية صينية" لكشف أسرار الرياح الشمسية

انتهاء رحلة "السفينة الموبوءة".. وهذا مصير من بقي على متنها

المزيد