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Pedants' corner
Original poster

Running two words together with an "r" in the middle

26 replies

Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 12:41

This drives me crazy! I just saw an advert for Bella and Duke dog food. Not only do they talk about "Bellarand Duke" during the advert, they also sing "Bellarand Duke" at the end 😤😤 It makes me want to put my foot through the TV so I thought perhaps I should have a rant instead! How hard is it to separate "Bella" and "and"?!

OP posts:
Mamette · 26/02/2021 12:43

PepparandGeorge are in the garden.

Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 13:30

@Mamette yes, that's another one that irritates me! Also RebeccarAdlington and JessicarEnnis 🤯

OP posts:
Rainallnight · 26/02/2021 13:32

This hugely irritates me. I’m a native English speaker from a different country and we just don’t have this as a thing. It’s Peppa and George. Just like that. Really easy!

Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 14:27

@Rainallnight exactly!! I think it's just laziness.

OP posts:
Original poster
Glitterblue · 26/02/2021 14:30

I just had a rant to my 10 year old DD about Bellarand Duke, and she told me she used to get so annoyed by PepparandGeorge - she said "do you see George standing in the garden holding a pepper? No!" 😂😂

OP posts:
DuesToTheDirt · 26/02/2021 14:36

It's pretty difficult to do actually, I find. "The idea of it..." I just have to say "idea - r - of it". It has a name, by the way, "intrusive r". Can't get worked up about it.

NotYourReindeer · 26/02/2021 14:39

Isn't this an accent thing rather than laziness? Southern accents tend to have that extra ahr sound at the end of words ending in a?

StepOutOfLine · 26/02/2021 14:40

It's called intrusive /r/
It generally happens in fast connected speech. More common in British English than others.
It happens because /r/ as a sound isn't particularly strong in British English. If you look at your mouth when you say phrases where one word ends in a vowel and the next one begins with one, you can see why it happens as the points of articulation for /r/ and for vowels (especially neutral "schwa" ) are very near to each other.

Peridotty · 26/02/2021 14:43

Actually I was told by my speech and drama teacher that I should join my words together to make the words flow better.

ClaudiaWankleman · 26/02/2021 14:49

I think it's just laziness

Could you please explain what is lazy about it? How does it save energy?

It's a very normal feature of a number of British English.

ShowOfHands · 26/02/2021 14:53

It's bog all to do with laziness. It's just a feature of our language for some speakers. I know very few people who don't say drawRing for example and that's just normal for where I live.

DuesToTheDirt · 26/02/2021 19:41

It's not laziness, it's done by analogy with words that do contain a spooken /r/ historically, but which is now pronounced only when they precede a vowel (and is retained in the written form). For instance, in a non-rhotic accent:

Dear. (no /r/ pronounced)
Dear Abigail (/r/ pronounced)
More. (no /r/)
More and more (first /r/ pronounced)

This leads to the analogical pronunciations
idea. (no /r/)
idea of (intrusive /r/ pronounced)
Law. (no /r)
Law and order (intrusive /r/ pronounced)

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 16:20

Drawing. A former colleague wrote the word as 'drawring'.

Many from the part of the country where I hail from write lager as 'larger' and in speech pronounce the added r.
Other words that got letters added were licence (lincence), poultice (poultrice) and postrate (prostrate).

I can't get used to draw for drawer, especially as in Chester draws.

Labobo · 05/03/2021 16:35

The one that makes my teeth itch is tempchuz instead of temperatures. Every weather presenter says it, even on the BBC where you'd think they might enocurage a bit of old-fashioned RP. Grin

ArtfulPuss · 05/03/2021 16:46

'Dramaronfour' drives me mad between the ad breaks and the programme.

StepOutOfLine · 05/03/2021 16:50

@Labobo

The one that makes my teeth itch is tempchuz instead of temperatures. Every weather presenter says it, even on the BBC where you'd think they might enocurage a bit of old-fashioned RP. Grin
Actually, syllable elision (which is what you're hearing, as "temperature" often has the second "e" elided to give it 3 syllables instead of an unwieldy 4) is RP. If you listen to people who use RP (not the Royals, they don't anymore) like Boris Johnson, they use syllable elision a lot.
Labobo · 05/03/2021 17:28

I wouldn't call BJ's accent RP. It's toff, which does use a lot of ellision. RP is meant to be clearly articulated, far more so than upper class accents which swallow and ellide a lot. A 3-syllable 'temperature' is fine but two just sets my teeth on edge.

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 18:02

I say it as tempruh-chuhs.

Labobo · 05/03/2021 18:30

Then I wish you did the weather reports @KirstenBlest Grin. Not hard is it? That little 'ruh' in the middle of the word.

KirstenBlest · 05/03/2021 18:53

Thanks. I don't say sickth or seckitchry. I get the mick taken out of me when I say some words.

I think that some people don't 'see' the word or its meaning when they say it.

NotMeNoNo · 05/03/2021 19:00

There's such a thing as dialect, I'm sure a lot of this is regional styles.

Babdoc · 09/03/2021 10:24

It is indeed regional. Up here in Scotland, the r on the end of dear is certainly not silent, as DuesToTheDirt suggests, it is rolled with enthusiasm! As an English incomer, over forty years ago, I was mocked for pronouncing iron as ion.
Dialect is endlessly fascinating. I think the extra r between words is more of a southern English feature - I don’t hear it much here, apart from on tv/radio.

Gerla · 09/03/2021 10:32

Stepoutofline's explanation is spot on. It's not laziness. It's also taught in a lot of ELF textbooks.

Gerla · 09/03/2021 10:33

*EFL!!

Labobo · 09/03/2021 11:47

Oh but I want it to be the way elves are taught English, @Gerla.