How would you pronounce Maya

@mathanxiety , in the UK mayor is pronounced like mare (non-rhotic).

May-a

Mayor rhymes with player in my accent. I pronounce the Y in both words.

Mare has no Y so rhymes with fair, dare, lair, air, pear, share, stare, wear, where...

Me too.

How on earth do non rhotic R speakers learn to read?

May-uh as a default because most I know say it like that, but I know My-uh is an alternative (not as nice IMO)

Ohhh of course. I was thinking of Mayor Quimby in the simpsons 😂 Americans must say it as mayor (may-a). Because I know we say Lord Mare(Mayor) here

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I’m finding it really interesting. I’m not Scottish but am obviously more used to hearing pronunciation like that of your MIL’s.

@Maelil01 , your post comes across as if you are poking fun at 'some English people who can't say the normal -er'. The emoticon seems like you are having a good laugh about it.

Her and prefer rhyme with fur, anyway, so don't get said in a way that sounds like -a.

Maya is My-a (like Maya Jama)

But if Mia, then said mee-ah

You need to look up Received Pronunciation and the "Intrusive R"

Emma and I becomes "EmmarandI" rather than Emma (glottal a) and (glottal I) I.

I don't particularly like it, but in RP it's actually technically correct.

Emma and Heather would both be "Emm-uh" and "He-thuh" in RP, we don't pronounce the r as we don't have a rhotic r.

I'd actually have a very soft glottal on Mia-Anne but I can see many RP speakers saying Meer-An as technically it's an intrusive r.

There is no difference in how I say Khaki and Car Key. Kah kee in both cases.

I have a Scottish MIL who says what sounds like Cacky for Khaki to my ear so it would be Cacky and Carrr Key.

I avoided calling DD Eleanor because we say El-uh-nuh and MIL can't help but say Ella-knowrrr and I don't like that pronunciation. I also say Pa-lah-vuh and she says Pa-LA-verrr.

It's just difference in accents, that's all. Tomayto tomahto and all that.

Tone is difficult to interpret on the internet. Stating that people with certain accents 'can't' produce certain sounds sounded quite snobby to me. Definitely presumptuous.

Apologies if you didn't intend it to be, but the moment you start questioning other people's accents you do run the risk of coming across that way I'm afraid.

How did you manage to turn my incomprehension about -an and -er sounding the same and rhyming into “snobbery”?
Since this began I’ve looked up lots of stuff and found some interesting things to read. Other posters have been genuinely helpful which is nice.

I’m not laughing AT the accent, I’m fascinated that there’s no perceived difference between a word ending in -an and one ending in -er. I’m also told that when a word of syllable ends in -a that sometimes and r is added on which is even more of a rabbit hole!
It seems khaki is pronounced car-key.
The things I’ve learned today!

This gets more and more confusing…so you’re saying

• if there’s an -er ending they don’t say the -r and say a
• if there is an -a ending they add an -r 😳

But thanks for the explanation.

Obviously I've heard the difference in the pronunciation of these words but it genuinely never occurred to me that the people with these accents cannot tell the difference between a word ending in -a (Maya) and one ending in -er (player) which is where this started.

Just found myself saying rubber and prefer out loud.
Rubber - Rub -bah
prefer - pre - furr

So you’ve never heard standard southern English accent before?

I (a southerner) absolutely understand the rhotic accent - plenty of American and Scottish etc accents around.

As others have said, can't and don't are two completely different things. By saying 'can't' you make it sound like a speech impediment. You don't get whole regions of people who 'can't' produce a certain sound. It's just that their accent doesn't stress that sound, so it's not a sound they produce when speaking their natural accent.

People are capable of mimicking different accents, ie producing those soundss. It doesn't mean they should produce it all the time or are wrong not to, if it's different to their natural accent.

There's really no need for such snobbery as to suggest whole groups of people 'can't' produce a certain sound, as if those who do are somewhat superior. It's just different ways of speaking. Personally, I love the huge varieties of British accents we have. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

It's also a fact of life that certain names either sound beautiful or dreadful, depending on the accent!

It's true. I went to university in Scotland, and I used to pop into the local library at the time rhyme time/book bugs was on. I often thought the lady who ran it must curse Julia Donaldson. Scarf and giraffe don't naturally rhyme in my accent either, but I wouldn't have to force it quite as much to get it to fit.

Shakespeare wrote for a more rhotic accent as well. Have a listen to Shakespeare performed in "original pronunciation". It sounds very different, and rhymes much more easily.

May-uh.
(But have come across so many different pronunciations of this name, that I have to say there's no hard and fast rule)

Well you’ve been incorrectly informed. It’s not that they can’t say, it’s that in their accent it isn’t pronounced in the same way as in yours. What is normal depends on accent. Would you be ok with people 😂 at your rhotic accent?

It’s not ‘can’t’, though — I mean, it’s not a speech defect, just a characteristic of some accents, like the way many French accents pronounce ‘r’ gutturally, in the throat.

Yes. Most English accents are non-rhotic, so drop /r/ in postvocalic situations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English

Most Irish, Scottish, and US accents (though not all) are rhotic, and pronounce /r/ in all settings.

@Maelil01 , they say it as -uh.
rubb-uh. Prefer is slightly different because the stress is on the 2nd syllable.

The r in rubber, player etc doesn't usually get sounded.
With names ending in -a, if the name after it starts with a vowel people tend to add an r sound - Mia Anne gets said as Mee-ur-Anne.

I’ve been told since this post that some English people can’t say the normal -er ending and pronounce it as -a. This is very odd to me and I’ve been wondering since how they say words like her, rubber, prefer etc. Do they become ha, rubba and prefa? It’s a whole rabbit hole! 😂