The rhotic "R" in England

Mxsmanic : "Doesn't it make more sense to pronounce ''car'' as /kAr/ than it does to pronounce it /kA/".

Br [ka:] sounds so sexy while US [kar] sounds, well... I shoudn't write it.

KAZOO:
**
**What does an English rhotic 'r' sound like?

If you click on the link below, then click where it says so on the right hand side, you will hear an sample of the English rhotic "R". The speaker is a very old guy and the recording was made in 1958....47 years ago! I don't think anyone speaks like that in Devon anymore...or anywhere else I reckon. It's a very rural part of England, down in the South West, from where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail to the New World (America) in the 17th century.

If you can understand everything this old boy is talking about then you're very clever. I certainly can't!

I hope you have the facility to download the recording btw.


http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?UID=021SED00C908S29U00005C01

btw You need Windows Media Player ...the recording seems to come in segments...just watch the screen and stick with it and you'll get the whole chat...just hope you can understand at least some of it.

I just listened to that recording of the old Devon man, Damian. It sounds like a foreign language.

I understood most of it, but not quite everything. Some of the non-standard English grammar reminds me of the way my maternal grandmother (b. 1899 in Texas) spoke, particularly the use of "run" and "come" rather than "ran" and "came". My grandmother also used the narrative "I said to him, I said". She would also say, "I says to him, I says".

<< The speaker is a very old guy and the recording was made in 1958....47 years ago! >>

Wow! 47 years ago!! I didn't know they even had electricity that far back.

"I don't think anyone speaks like that in Devon anymore...or anywhere else I reckon"

Yes, they still do. And why shouldn't they? Accents don't disappear or change in 50 years.

"Wow! 47 years ago!! I didn't know they even had electricity that far back".

Hmmm.

In that case, I wonder how people powered televisions and radios in 1958. With steam?

Adam, I was merely commenting sarcastically on Damian's use of an exclamation point after "47 years ago".

<<"I don't think anyone speaks like that in Devon anymore...or anywhere else I reckon"

Yes, they still do. And why shouldn't they? Accents don't disappear or change in 50 years. >>

Accents may not disappear completely within 50 years, but they can change rapidly (substantial change from one gerneration to the next is possible). Also, remember that older people retain the accent they learn when they were young, and take the speaker's age into account (this man was 79 when that sample was recorded). So it's quite possible that modern day speakers of his region sound very different.

DEBORAH:

I love a sense of humour and I appreciated your quip back there. ADAM needs to lighten up a wee bit.....Englishmen are usually spot on with a sense of humour, give them their due.

Anyway, Deborah, a wee while back we discussed the word "scone" and how to pronounce it. I told you that we say it to rhyme with "bone".

This link is from one of today's Sunday supplements:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2104-1570970,00.html

See the last letter headed "Shibboleth". Mrs Mills is so funny in her replies to really whacky letters....sometimes I wonder how genuine they are....so off the wall some of them. Cheers!

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

You're right, that wasn't Mxsmanic.

This post is from Mxsmanic. I've digitally signed it; hopefully the signature will survive the process of posting to the board (you may have to validate against the source code of the page to check it; we shall see).

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.0.2

iQA/AwUBQmuX6xv8knkS0DI6EQK0WACfX6Fj+xjBHXF3UPM9KCl2YDf2CScAoPFB
HuxKbxKZlfuyB1HR/6hrPk5x
=PuqT
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

No, unfortuately the text is massaged by the server, and so digital signatures are corrupted.

I suppose you'll just have to depend on my distinctive style (such as it is) to identify my posts.

DAMIAN:

Thanks for the link to Mrs. Mills's column, in response to my query as to the proper pronunciation of scone.

<< “Scone”, obviously. >>

Well, that's settled!

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.0.2


Im gay!

iQA/AwUBQmuX6xv8knkS0DI6EQK0WACfX6Fj+xjBHXF3UPM9KCl2YDf2CScAoPFB
HuxKbxKZlfuyB1HR/6hrPk5x
=PuqT
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----