How do you pronounce your "r"s towards the ends of words like Shearer, purr, nerd and pore? And what about those in car, bird and her?

Traditionally, parts of Lancashire have very clearly articulated "r"s, similar to the stereotype of Cornwall and the West Country. The pronunciation of these "r"s towards the ends of words is called rhoticity.

In fact, historically, hundreds of years ago, people throughout England used to pronounce strong "r"s. But now, says the research paper, these strong "r"s are definitely dying out.

In Blackburn, young speakers do mostly say their "r"s, but they are, according to the research team, phonetically very weak and often difficult to perceive. And they pronounce them less frequently than older speakers.

  • FlaxEnglish
    13·
    11 months ago

    The “British” denomym applied to the United Kingdom. Not just Great Britain. The term “Britain” in general applies to the United Kingdom. Hence the Great part. In fact, “Great Britain” is occasionally short for “Great Britain and Northern Ireland” such as at the Olympics.