English Pronunciation for Icelanders

35
car kAr cart kArt scored skOrd tired taird
Accents of English like RP, which have no non-prevocalic r, are
known as non-rhotic accents. Non-rhotic accents occur in London,
Eastern, Mid- and Northern England, a few parts of (urban)
Scotland, parts of the Eastern USA (including the traditional New
York accent), and also South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Rhotic accents, in which r also occurs non-prevocalically, are
found in the South-West of England (not Wales), and include most
Scottish, Irish, American and Canadian accents.
2 30
2.5.3 Linking r
Since r only occurs prevocalically in non-rhotic accents, it can
disappear and reappear in the same word:
compare 8 far fA with 8 far away fAr0wei
stir stE stir up stErÆp
four fO four or five fOrO faiv
Peter pIt0
Peter and Paul pIt0r0n pOl
here hi0
here and there hi0r0n ðe0
This is called linking r. We find that linking r occurs only
following the sounds A E O and 0 (including the diphthongs i0 e0
and u0). But this means that a non-rhotic child who can't read
cannot distinguish between words like lore lO and law lO, or Ma
mA and mar mA. So, when a vowel follows, the child puts a
linking r in all these words: Ma(r) is coming, law(r) and order;
i.e. the child has a phonological rule which inserts r between
A,E,O or 0 and a following vowel. Later, when the child learns to
spell, and finds out that there is no r in law, the phonological
rule in the child's language still holds. As a result, non-rhotic
speakers usually use linking r even where there is no r in the
spelling. RP speakers usually say:
far fA but 8 far away fAr0wei
and Shah SA Shah of Persia SAr0v pES0
four fO four or five fOrO faiv
and law lO law and order lOr0n Od0
Peter pIt0
Peter and Paul pIt0r0n pOl
and China Tain0 China and India Tain0r0n indi0
bore bO boring bOri~
and draw drO drawing drOri~