British Rhotic Accents Should Be Made A Protected Species

I am going to let you into a secret. Although I'm a Professor of Bristolian I do give private English lessons - to Italians. Many, but not all, of the followers of my Professor of Bristolian facebook page will know that I now live on the Italian island of Sardinia, which is where my wife is from (but we do visit Bristol every year). Anyway, I remember being quite startled when a student of mine said that she'd been told, by another teacher, that in English the 'r' is not pronounced at the end of words like 'bar' or, in words like 'card' when the 'r' comes before another consonant. I told her that, strictly speaking, that isn't the case. It depends whether the accent is 'rhotic' (in which the 'r' is pronounced strongly) or non-rhotic (where the 'r' is pronounced lightly or not at all if it doesn't come at the beginning of a word). Furthermore, in both cases the 'r' is pronounced if it comes at the end of a word and the next word begins with a vowel, because it links the two words.

That was some time ago. However, because I often search Youtube for language and accent videos, I often find amongst their 'recommendations' are those videos that purport to be from English teachers teaching the correct Standard British English pronunciation. Most of them say that there is a rule regarding the silent 'r', as cited in the previous paragraph. And I'm thinking "What?! Are you saying that all those Bristolians who retain the rhoticity of their accent are breaking a rule of pronunciation? Cobblers to that!" Here's one of those videos guaranteed to confuse foreign students of English who find themselves in Bristol or the South West of England:



Sorry, mate. I don't agree. Traditional British English was rhotic, as it still is with most Bristolians and many who hail from the South West of England. It may be becoming less prevalent but that doesn't mean to say the pronunciation is wrong. In the 60s and 70s I attended a Primary School in North Bristol and then one of Bristol's top grammar schools. We were never never never ever corrected for pronouncing the 'r' strongly in words like 'card'. Here's another interesting video (I'm not sure that the voice recordings are much help) which shows how rhoticity in English pronunciation has lessened since 1650 and is in danger of dying out. We can't let that happen!


 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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