General Question

Harp's avatar

Is there any regional or class variation in the British pronunciation of the "intrusive R"?

Asked by Harp (19179points) January 12th, 2009

When Brits pronounce a word ending with an “a”, and if the next word begins with a vowel, they will throw in an “r” sound between the two words (e.g. “Do you have any idea[r] about…”. This is called the “intrusive R”.

My question is whether this is universal among Brits, or whether its use has regional or class boundaries.

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7 Answers

tinyfaery's avatar

I don’t know much about the class boundaries, but every single Brit I have ever heard speak uses the intrusive r. Even people from other cultures who are educated in Britian do this. It’s funny to me. I use the intrusive r to practice my British accents.
Yes. I practice British accents.

gailcalled's avatar

I watched The Commitments last night and could understand almost nothing, never mind the “Intrusive R”. But I do like learning something new. Thanks, Harp.

Triozoo's avatar

When in doubt Google it :)

poofandmook's avatar

I love the intrusive R. But I’m also in love with the accent. LOVE.

richardhenry needs to make lots more videos! Read from the phone book… who cares! ;)

cage's avatar

I speak what you would call standard English.
My father grew up in London and so should have had a cockney accent, but he was also well spoken.
My Mother is from Birmingham, but grew up in a posh area,m so instead of having a brummy accent, also has a well spoken voice.
I was born and raised in Yorkshire, and so I should therefore have a yorkshire accent like my brother and sister, and yet I don’t.

If you want an example, think of a BBC news reader.
I know what you;re talking about but I don;t really put an R on the end.
Think of breaking the word idea down
eye-dee-a
the word flows better (for me atleast) when that last ‘a’ is aaaaa, which comes out as aar
eye-dee-aar (or aaaahhh)

I can tell you now a cockney accent would not use this. They are more punchy
“You haven;t got an idea”
becomes
“Yu ain go’ an eye-dee-ah”

Hard to explain.

@poofandmook
Mr Henry thinks I’m posh… you should give me a go ;)
obviously you never listened to our podcast!

poofandmook's avatar

@cage: Podcasts? Where?? :D

cage's avatar

@poofmonk we did them a bit ago, we even got onto iTunes’ new and notable section, but due to time restrictions and other commitments, we broke it up. Might do another soon. http://www.fluther.com/disc/16959/what-competition-should-we-run-on-our-podcast/

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