1. Rhotic and non-rhotic accents: R-dropping, Linking-R, Intrusive-R

2. Can you define the following terms?
Accent
Letter ↔ Sound (change /tʃeɪndʒ/)
Vowel ↔ Consonant
Syllable
Pre-vocalic ↔ Pre-consonantal

3. R-pronunciation
Accents of English which pronounce the /r/ in all positions, e. g. General American (GA), are called rhotic accents.
Accents which regularly drop the /r/ in certain
positions, e. g. RP, are non-rhotic accents.

4. Rhotic and non-rhotic accents of English
- non-rhotic accents (such as RP) only pronounce the sound [r] in pre-vocalic position
=> car park: [r] sounds are not pronounced
=> fairy: [r] is pronounced because of the word final [i] sound
- rhotic accents (such as GA) pronounce the [r] sound everywhere
=> parking lot

5. A pronunciation difference
more
RP /mɔː/ vs. GA /mɔːr/

6. More and more... Observe the italicised part of the following
sentence:
This lesson is getting more and more funny.
Is there a pronunciation difference between more(1) and more(2)?
What could be the reason?

7. This lesson is getting more and more funny. more(1): mɔːr more(2): mɔː
Linking-R
This lesson is getting more and more funny. more(1): mɔːr more(2): mɔː
=> in RP the sound [r] is only pronounced when a word beginning with a vowel closely follows

8. Linking-R Which [r] sounds are pronounced from the
following sentence? Why?
President Carter delivered a tiring lecture.

9. Linking-R Which [r] sounds are pronounced from the
following sentence? Why?
President Carter delivered a tiring lecture.

10. They saw us running with the stolen goods in our hands.
Read out the following sentence and observe the pronunciation of the bold words:
They saw us running with the stolen goods in our hands.

11. They saw us running...
Read out the following sentence and observe the pronunciation of the bold words:
They saw us running with the stolen goods in our hands.
Can you sense an intruder?

12. Intrusive-R In RP, words ending in a schwa /-ə/; /ɑː/ or /ɔː/,
when followed by a word beginning with a vowel, may get a linking /r/ even if there is none in the
spelling.
This phenomena is optional and must be
indicated in transcription by an r in round
brackets.
saw us /sɔː(r) əs/ law and order /lɔː(r)/
a spa in France /spɑː(r)/

13. Intrusive-R Where can an Intrusive-R appear? Why?
vanilla ice – stay indoors

14. Intrusive-R Where can an Intrusive-R appear? Why?
vanilla(r) ice – stay indoors

15. ...and DO the homework

16. Sources
SLIDES
- Balogné Bérces Katalin: Beginner`s English Dialectology: An
Introduction to the Accents and Dialects of English. Ad Librum, Budapest, 2008.
- Nádasdy Ádám: Practice Book in English Phonetics and
Phonology. Nemzeti Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest, 2003.
HOMEWORK HANDOUT
- Nádasdy (2003: pp )