Linguists have called this phenomenon the “linking r.” Because of the tendency to pronounce an “r” when it occurs between vowel sounds, many of these same speakers go a step more and add an “r” where it doesn't belong, once again between two vowel sounds.
Why do British people say R at the end of words that end in a?
Most accents spoken in England are non-rhotic: “r” is only pronounced before vowels. Before consonants or a pause, it dropped out a couple of centuries ago, but it left its effects on some (but not all) preceding vowels, lengthening them and affecting their quality.
Why do some Brits do this? Because it's the natural byproduct of pronouncing the previous syllable the way they do. An example might be how some Brits pronounce the word “idea". Their particular accent and mouth movement cause the “r" sound to automatically occur.
Non-rhotic means we don't sound Rs *unless they're followed by a vowel *. So we drop the R at the end of 'rotor' but sound it in 'rotor and wing'. This has an odd result with all these words end in A: because 'rotor' and 'rota' sound the same to us, so do 'China' and '*chiner'.
If you're learning American or Irish English, this is what your teacher may tell you. However, most British people have a different way of speaking. In England, Wales and Scotland, the R is never pronounced if it comes at the end of a word, or before a consonant. The R is only pronounced before a vowel sound.
It typically happens when the first word ends in the vowel sounds /ə/ (schwa), /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/ and the next word starts with a vowel sound. The phenomenon is observed primarily in non-rhotic accents of English, where the /r/ is inserted to eliminate the vowel hiatus and improve speech flow.
R-dropping also called non-rhoticity or post vocalic r-lessness happens to English-speakers when the "r" sound is not pronounced after a vowel. Then the words "car" and "card" both sound like "cah" and "cahd".
Because, in Old English, it was spelt Darby. When we migrated to modern English, we spelt it Derby. If you look on old maps, it will be spelt as, Darby. For the same reason Muricans pronounce Arkansas as Arkinsaw.
Where words like saw and idea come before a vowel, there's an increasing tendency among speakers of British English to insert an 'r' sound, so that law and order becomes law-r and order and china animals becomes china-r animals. Linguists call this 'intrusive r' because the 'r' was never historically part of the word.
Even within each of the four nations of the UK there is a huge range of accents. This is probably most pronounced in the north of England, and some of those do pronounce an R at the end of words like “No”.
In the years before the Second World War, it was a not-uncommon affectation for people of a certain class to add “what?” to the end of a sentence, when inviting agreement. Things like, “I say, pretty decent sort of day, what?” or “Beastly weather, what?” were commonly heard remarks.
The loss of postvocalic /r/ in the British prestige standard in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries influenced the American port cities with close connections to Britain, which caused upper-class pronunciation to become non-rhotic in many Eastern and Southern port cities such as New York City, Boston, Alexandria ...
In English phonology, t-glottalization or t-glottalling is a sound change in certain English dialects and accents, particularly in the United Kingdom, that causes the phoneme /t/ to be pronounced as the glottal stop [ʔ] in certain positions.
Why do British people pronounce the word "idea" like it has an r on the end? Among English dialects, there's something linguists called rhotacism. This basically means how likely a dialect is to pronounce the English r.
Why do British people have letters at the end of their name?
This is a list of post-nominal letters used in the United Kingdom after a person's name in order to indicate their positions, qualifications, memberships, or other status.
The pronunciation (klärk), spelled clark and clerk, arose in the south of England during the 15th century and is today the Received Pronunciation of clerk in the United Kingdom. The modern American pronunciation (klûrk) more closely represents the older pronunciation.
Some speakers insert an “R” in certain words like “idea” and “soda,” resulting in “idear” and “soder,” which is influenced by regional dialects and pronunciation habits. Rhotic accents fully pronounce the “R” consonant in words, while non-rhotic accents may leave it silent or replace it with an “uh” sound.
How is the British R different from the American R?
Non-rhotic speakers, however, like those who speak British English or Australian English do not pronounce the /r/ in those words. In other words, Americans (and Canadians) pronounce /r/ in all positions, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only if it is followed by a vowel sound.
Derby (/ˈdɑːrbi/ DAR-bee) is a city and unitary authority area on the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original county town. As a unitary authority, Derby is administratively independent from Derbyshire County Council. The population of Derby is 261,136 (2021).
There are over 30 different “r” sounds in English. Consonants and vowels before and after the “r” influence the way we move our mouths, thereby changing the way that the sound is pronounced. Furthermore, “r” is affected by its placement at the beginning, middle or end of a word.
So how did “wash” turn into “warsh”? One theory traces the debasement of the word to eastern Pennsylvania, the ancestral home of the Midland accent, where “ah” sounded like o. “Water” was pronounced “wooder.” The similarity to the o in “or” may have made it seem logical to insert an “r”.
