Why don't rhotic speakers use 'intrusive r?'

Trimac20   Sat Nov 21, 2009 11:41 am GMT
I'm wondering why it's restricted to certain non-rhotic speakers, and not to rhotics and some non-rhotics? I think Wells says something about it, but to me NOT using intrusive 'r' sounds a bit funny, because I'm so used to it.
Guest   Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:01 pm GMT
Isn't it kind of obvious? Non-rhoticity is what leads to the intrusive R, so of course rhotic speakers wouldn't be likely to have it. The reason that it leads to it is that non-rhotic speakers pronounce R's in intervocalic positions don't pronounce them elsewhere. This causes differences such as "I like your ca'" vs. "There is a caR in the garage." This can generalize so that R becomes inserted into all positions where one vowel would directly follow another. A rhotic speaker always pronounces the R, so they would never have a basis from which to generalize in this way.
Guest   Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:05 pm GMT
*BUT don't pronounce
Uriel   Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:43 pm GMT
As a rhotic speaker, I find the intrusive R jarring and bizarre to my ears, not natural at all. So I suspect we don't adopt it because A) it doesn't make any sense in the first place -- if there's no R there, why make one up? B) we've got plenty of R's going already, thank you, and C) it sounds ugly to us. Much as I imagine some of our accent features sound to non-rhotic speakers. ;)
Jasper   Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:30 pm GMT
"As a rhotic speaker, I find the intrusive R jarring and bizarre to my ears, not natural at all. So I suspect we don't adopt it because A) it doesn't make any sense in the first place -- if there's no R there, why make one up? B) we've got plenty of R's going already, thank you, and C) it sounds ugly to us. Much as I imagine some of our accent features sound to non-rhotic speakers"


I agree with every word.

Somebody (was it Caspian?) once pointed out here on this forum that the intrusive "r" was not always a feature of RP; it was added, on purpose, at a later date.

Too bad, from my point of view. It sounds nasty.
Fred   Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:41 am GMT
In New England, you can hear intrusive "r" in rhotic speakers.