Comments on: Intrusive r

By: Stefan Olafs

Stefan Olafs — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:18:16 +0000

This is what I gather from my English phonetics professor:

In non-rhotic accents of English, r only occurs prevocalically – it only occurs when a vowel follows it.

With regard to intrusive-r:

R is inserted (intrudes) when it occurs between ə, ɜ:, ɑ:, ɔ: and another vowel.

More on this site:
http://notendur.hi.is/peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/rlinking.html

By: Michael Lamb

Michael Lamb — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:46:49 +0000

And I’ve definitely heard /miːljɜː/ with linking r, probably as often as not. (Sorry, JWL, no chapter and verse.)

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:07:36 +0000

dw – the only word I can find is “milieu”, which LPD gives as /miːljɜː/ (with stress on either syllable) for the principal pronunciation.

By: dw

dw — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:06:53 +0000

@Kat:

The vowel of “bird” nearly always derives from words that historically contained /r/, and are therefore spelled with R. It’s therefore not possible for them to feature intrusive R (if a phonetic [r] occurred, it would instead be classified as linking R).

The only exceptions would be recent loanwords and proper names from languages such as French and German, whose rounded front vowels are often approximated in Southern British English by the vowel of “bird”. For example, the name of French football (soccer) player Frank LeBoeuf was usually rendered /ləˈbɜ:f/ in the English media. However, for such a word to supply an example of intrusive R, the vowel would have to be word-final, and I’m having a hard time coming up with any examples.

In American English, the FACE, GOAT or GOOSE vowels are usually used instead for such loanwords.

By: Kat

Kat — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:21:47 +0000

Very interesting!
But why, Why are there very few instances of intrusive /r/ in other vowels such as the vowel in bird ?

By: mike

mike — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:10:23 +0000

Thanks dw; she makes some plausible speculations in 6.3. Although both my parents were RP speakers, I grew up in Scotland, where hardly anyone said PipaAlpha, so London BBC was very noticeable.

In discussion I have found some English RP speakers unable to hear the distinction until exaggerated. Brain patterning is obviously important.

By: dw

dw — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:31:16 +0000

@mike:

Both linking and intrusive R are optional features of the accents that allow them.

They are both less frequent when adjacent to proper names (as in your “Westminster Abbey” and “Piper Alpha”). The study that found this is here (linked to from the intrusive / linking R Wikipedia page).

https://bora.uib.no/bitstream/1956/2335/1/Dr.Avh.Bente%20Hannisdal.pdf

By: mike

mike — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:06:10 +0000

As a native speaker of English English, I understand the intrusive R. What baffles me is that the same people who say lawRandorder also say WestminstaAbbey. When the Piper Alpha oil rig collapsed, I don’t think a single BBC professional ever said anything but PipaAlpha.

So why do they miss it out when it should be there?

By: Graham

Graham — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:12:08 +0000

Paul – Your first two differences are quite right, but I don’t feel that I make any distinction in lip position between the two words. If you “have to” find three ways in which they are different, I imagine this must be for an assignment. Please let us all know the “correct” answer when you get it!

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:37:58 +0000

awsome thanks! I was confused because I thought the final /a:/ sound was actually an /ǝ/. But I guess you are right.

If you wanna help me with another problem I would appreciate it (even though it has nothing to do with the intrusive ‘r’). I’m not a native English speaker so pronunciation sometimes gives me a hard time.
The problem is that I have to find three ways in which the pronunciation of the word cease differs from sees. My suggestions are:

1.The final “s” in sees [si:z] is a voiced /z/ sound, whereas the “s” is voiceless in cease [si:s].
2.The duration of the vowel /i/ is slightly longer in sees than in cease.
3.The lip position of the /i/ vowel is slightly more spread in sees than it is in cease.

If anyone would like to comment on them please fell free to do so.