Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of an English accent Pronouncing the letter r wherever it appears, as in bar (/bɑːɹ/) and bard or barred (/bɑːɹd/); this trait is common in much of the United States, Canada, many parts of the north and west of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
- adjective Having the quality of the said letter. This includes the sounds of the IPA symbols /ɹ/, /ɻ/, /ɚ/, /ɝ/, and some would say /r/, or r coloring.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But my source (Roca and Johnson) doesn’t mention a glide in rhotic accents.
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Canadian English is 'rhotic', i.e. r is pronounced in such words as art, door, worker. ...
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Yet, I can hear a slight glide from the strong vowel to the schwa before the rhotic r is pronounced in these words in American English.
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Non-rhotic accents occur in most of England, the whole of Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and some parts of the United States, notably New England and the South, although the position in US English is complicated and changing.
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By this is meant that some varieties of English pronounce all orthographic ‘r’, (the rhotic group), while others do not (the non-rhotic speakers).
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There are also new developments to be found in British English – did you know Shakespeare was rhotic?
I say pyjama… 2008
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Nor is it likely that they can switch between a South Carolina drawl and a non-rhotic New England accent.
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Actually, /r/ can occur pre-consonantally in “non-rhotic” accents.
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As non-rhotics have been around for at least two hundred years, the current perpetrators of this horror (in his view) must have learned their errors from their parents, siblings and friends, just as he has learned his (presumably) rhotic ways from his.
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Rhotic and non-rhotic are terms I never use coz they seem too sweeping etc.
elgiad007 commented on the word rhotic
Does this have anything to do with the difference between the words "center" and "centre"?
November 20, 2008
rolig commented on the word rhotic
No, only with the way they are pronounced: the rhotic pronunciation (as in standard US) expresses the final r-sound: /'sɛntər/, whereas a non-rhotic pronunciation doesn't: /'sɛntə:/. It doesn't matter how the word is spelled.
November 20, 2008
elgiad007 commented on the word rhotic
I see. Thanks for the clarification, rolig!
November 20, 2008
thesaraheffect commented on the word rhotic
like the schwa the rhotic vowel is one of the reasons I dislike the sound of American English. I was born in the wrong country in the wrong decade.
September 24, 2009