British Pronunciation of words ending in "r"

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zedextreme8177
You think that's bad, try listening to Maldivian news-casters who try to speak in an English accent:crazy:
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Well, it's usually common that when someone tries an accent of a different area (Region, Country, State etc.) it's usually interpreted as terrible by the natives. This has been reiterated by my German lectures to me many a time.
 
I think the lack of R can be attributed to anti-pirate propaganda disseminated by the crown in support of his royal navy.
 
R is non-existent in London, and yet it's in abundance here in the West Country...
 
I like the Dorset use of putting H in front of words beginning with O. So for lunch I had homelet and horange juice.
 
blaaah
I like the Dorset use of putting H in front of words beginning with O. So for lunch I had homelet and horange juice.
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I am all too prone to the removal of H with words that begin with it.

Cheese 'n' 'am butty;
I'll 'ave some of that;
We 'ope we can do something about it soon, etc.

Language is one complex s.o.b.
 
blaaah
The UK English way of saying data is dar-ter. The American day-ter or dat-a
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Wrong.
UK = Day-ter
Australia = Dar-ter
America = (don't know)
 
blaaah
The UK English way of saying data is dar-ter. The American day-ter or dat-a
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Never really heard anyone pronounce it like that. Day-ter is all I ever here personally (Oxfordshire area).

blaaah
I like the Dorset use of putting H in front of words beginning with O. So for lunch I had homelet and horange juice.
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This always makes me laugh.
 
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We pronounce bath as barth in surrey where I was born despite now living in lincoln.
 
MazdaPrice
To me it has a very 'U' sound about it.
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No no no, you've got it all wrong. The sound of the letters "e" and "r" sound like "eeee" and "arrrrr". Naturally, when you put them next to each other and blend the sounds you get the "er" sound. "Er" is a function of "e" and "r" - the "ur" phenomenon is the oddball.

In German the "ur" problem is handled better. When the letters "u" and "r" are placed next to each other it doesn't make an "er" sound like "urban"; instead, it makes an "ooer" sounds, like in the word Geburtstag. The "er" sound isn't as sharp as in English. There is no "er" sound in German - even when you put an umlaut over a "u" it sound like "yer" and an umlaut over an "e" sounds like "eah" (as best I can spell it). For example, "ër" sounds like "air" with a flat "r".

In American english, I believe data is normally pronounced da-da (The closest approximation I can do; I don't know the phonetic alphabet, and Ts in the middle of words are often Ds in American English I find). This is opposed to the British English, which is usually day-ter.
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We pronounce "data" as "day-tuh". Often in situations like this we don't annunciate the "t" and it sounds like a "d", but the word is always understood as being spelled with a "t" somehow; even young spellers never get this wrong

German has inadvertently given me a better insight into English
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I have simply given up on the English rules of "ie" and "ei". I misspell more than half of those words on purpose because there is no rule that makes any sense except the German rule. If it makes an "I" sound, it is spelled "ei", and if it makes an "E" sound, it is "ie". Every single time. Since that's the only rule on the planet that makes sense of the issue, it's the rule I use!

EDIT: Funny fact, a friend of mine just recently heard of the company Abarth through the British Top Gear show. He had never seen the word before, and through hearing them say it he always said "Abahth". He said it to me one day - "Did you see that new Abahth?" - and all I could muster was a mean look and "What the hell is an abahth?"

"You know, the new Fiat. The Abahth."

"...Bro. It's pronounced "Abarth. Look, this is how it's spelled..."
 
I thought I heard in old black and white English factual programs or films. But maybe they were using another countries version of it. I used to say Dar-ta, until Star Trek Next Generation came to the UK.
 
MazdaPrice
Digging up an old thread because this thread is quite interesting.

The 'schwa' is a linguistic phenomenon which is often pronounced as an 'er'; it's the end sound in the word sister (Sis-ter) but due to my own accent I think it sounds more like a 'ur' sound, as in the North English pronunciation of urban, urn, bourbon, urgh, ergonomics. To me it has a very 'U' sound about it. The schwa exists in such words as:

Taken, supply, Persia. The spelling differs because like most languages, the standard english alphabet has more sounds than letters. (By standard alphabet I mean as opposed to the phonetic alphabet)

American pronunciation of the 'schwa', which is in the example given of 'Commander Data' is slightly more glottal I believe. I think it depends on your accent whether both Commander and Data have a schwa sound on the end. In American english, I believe data is normally pronounced da-da (The closest approximation I can do; I don't know the phonetic alphabet, and Ts in the middle of words are often Ds in American English I find). This is opposed to the British English, which is usually day-ter.

So with the phrase Commander Data, it depends on your accent as to whether there is one Schwa or two, because same words in the same language sound different in different accents.

I'm far from an expert in linguistics, but doing a degree in German has inadvertently given me a better insight into English, and doing a beginner's course in Dutch unearthed the Schwa to me.

Hope this helps.
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It's worse than that. Patrick Stewart can say it correctly if he's just saying the word Data, or Commander. But when he puts Commander in front of Data, it because Commanda Dater... especially if it's followed by a word starting with a vowel like "and".

Makes no sense whatsoever to move the letter "r" from one word and put it on the other. We can all agree that the word "Commander" ends in an "r". Moving the "r" around or pronouncing it differently depending on what else is in the sentence is just weird.
 
There is no "er" sound in German
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ö makes a similar but not exact sound. Words like ökologisch, möglichkeit, hören have a smililar sound to me. My 'er' sounds incredibly similar to ö. But like I said, it's all dependant on your own accent how some sounds actually sound.

To me with my voice/accent, ergonomics, urban and ökologisch have the same initial sound as each other, and share this sound with burger and murder. I'm not spot on with this, obviously, but the Schwa also sounds similar in the dutch word mogelijk. The spelling is completely irregular to the normal pronunciation of ij, but in that particular word it takes a Schwa and sounds similar to the other I listed. It's clearly difficult to agree on phonetics with different accents and stresses, but it makes for interesting debate.

You're right about English though; it's many conflicting influences make it very irregular and the general differences between American and British pronunciations add fuel to the fire.

gaa-lick
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Yeah, but the accent debate makes the joke work for me. It's hard for some people to pronounce Cymraeg correctly. It's not quite 'cum-rye-g'. Y in Welsh makes a very specific sound that I only ever hear in english by welsh people with welsh accents.
 
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Had an English teacher who kept saying idear.
Always wondered what made her so affectionate. :sly:
 
A bit off topic, but here it goes anyway.

The football team Reading is not pronounced as the usual "I'm reading a book".
Note, English is not my native language, so this has always baffled me.
 
It's pronounced like the past-tense of "read", which is also spelled "read" but pronounced "red".

I read. (reed)

I have read. (red)

The city Reading is pronounced "redding".
 
Keef
It's pronounced like the past-tense of "read", which is also spelled "read" but pronounced "red".

I read. (reed)

I have read. (red)

The city Reading is pronounced "redding".
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I didn't know this until I heard some football commentator pronounce the name many years ago, and I suspect that many of the not English-speaking countries still think it's pronounced "reeding". Anyways, so the pronounciation has to do with the dialect of the people from the city Reading?
 
To back up the use of English here I'd like to add that I've spent quite a few years now speaking perfect spoken English. I work with people from the US and Canada and we all agree that American English or another form of pronunciation are all together 'dialects' of English.
This debate raged for years before I won with my fact that English is from the UK and is a mix of many different languages. To counter my win I was presented with the fact that as English is a progressive and evolving language there is no reason why in the future the correct use of it will be American English.
I work in an English language school and it has taken me years to get out of dropping 't' and 'h' from words and replacing a voiced 'th' with 'v', (London pronunciation). I still have use of what I call a heavy 'a' turning words like 'grass' into 'gr'are'ss'.
If anyone needs advice on English pronunciation just switch on the BBC London news. :sly:

For the record, I say 'data' with an 'a' not 'er'. But then most of childhood was spent saying 'er' as an 'a' like 'muva' and 'farva'. (What can one expect from a Cockney?) :dunce:
 
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