In studying the British dialect, I am baffled by the rendition of the letter "r". Typically, I hear that word "saw" pronounced "soar". Often the letter is pronounced in words ending with the letter "a" -- tacking on a non-existent "r" phonic. (ie, "mommer" for mama,, like in the Slade song "Did Your Mama Ever Tell Ya") And yet words that end in the letter "r" that letter is typically not pronounced at all. (ie, well, it's not spoken in the song, but the Led Zep song title, "D'yer Mak'er"...jer-make'a) [sorry for the intentional odd music examples]

And so, whenever I attempt speaking with a British accent, I first pick a region, then turn usage of the "r" letter upside down.

In fairness, some of that "r" business is prominent in the USA's northeast territories -- especially New York. Annoyingly, when attempting to pronounce the word "extraordinary" (which is typically spoken as "ex'trah'dinary")

Why so much trouble with the letter R?


* please, no flames...this is merely observationist. I live in the deep south and mock redneck-speak daily, much to the amusement of my redneck co-workers, friendly fire.

All language is in a constant state of change..some of the things I've noticed is the letter "T"seems to have disappeared from the alphabet..but thats probably for the be....er
And lots of people "Fink" instead of think
Santa Claus comes down the "chimley"
...and in the US .."I don't know, I'll ax him"

Smoker told he HAD to stop or he was gonna die! ........would that be “going to die” from 45cat forum.

Non smoker and non collector.

There's certain American dialects that add an R at the end of a word, too. "Pizzer" (instead of pizza), "Winder" (Instead of window). It's mostly those from the south that say it that way.
In the case of "extraordinary', most people pronounce it "extrordinary" but, actually, each pronunciation has a slightly different meaning. The above example means: odd, bizarre, amazing, etc.. But, to say it, "extraordinary" means: to go the extra steps, to be something special, wonderful or, again, amazing.

In studying the British dialect, I am baffled by the rendition of the letter "r". Typically, I hear that word "saw" pronounced "soar". Often the letter is pronounced in words ending with the letter "a" -- tacking on a non-existent "r" phonic. (ie, "mommer" for mama,, like in the Slade song "Did Your Mama Ever Tell Ya") And yet words that end in the letter "r" that letter is typically not pronounced at all. (ie, well, it's not spoken in the song, but the Led Zep song title, "D'yer Mak'er"...jer-make'a) [sorry for the intentional odd music examples]

In the South I live in (Carolinas), I've never heard "pizzer", but I remember hearing "winder" like when I was a kid, but even then, it was rare, mostly by folks whose roots were in the mountains.

Regarding the "axe" / ask used by blacks, I've heard that all my life. Listen to "The Young Folks" by the Jackson 5 (from the "ABC" album, + b-side of the "ABC" 45) and even Michael sings the line, "We "axe" you why..." in the second verse.

The one thing that annoys me about the English spoken on TV by presenters and the like quite often bridge two words with an 'r' The first word ends in a vowel and the next word also begins with a vowel, for example, if somebody said "The area in and around the town" would have an 'r' tagged onto the word "area" and sound like "The area (r) in and around the town". I think it's just a lazy way to say it without too much pronunciation. It's quite comprehensively explained in the attached video from You Tube

Just to be clear, there's no such thing as a British accent. English/Scot/Irish/Welsh are all very different, within England theres about half a dozen distinct accents alone. The lad in the video is clearly from the south/west and speaking in embryonic pirate ! (and very bad example for ESOL )

As an English southerner who lived in London for a long time but now resides in the frozen north I can guarantee you get a multitude of different accents wherever you go in England. Depending on who it I am talking too most people in the North think I am either a cockney barrel boy or super posh because I say words like BATH as BaRth but not like the northern BAFF .
However the golden rule for words in English is they do not sound like they are spelt. So IDEA really is I-DEAR & AREA is AIR-REE-ARE.

Regarding carryonsidney comment, I have lived in London all my life. Today I traveled from Uxbridge to central London by bus and underground train and very little English was spoken on my journey both ways, so how you can tell a London accent is anyone guess.

Chiswick, is pronounced Chis ick not Chis wick with a silent W.

There supposedly over 100 different languages regulary used in the big smoke?
Years ago I worked in a little workshop up Uxbridge for a while but the 2 hr commute from Crystal Palace was a bit off putting!