american or british

Then there's the old "drawring" for drawing pronunciation which is the only natural way to say it if you've never actually pronounced it "draw-ing".

>Anyway, while people whose dialects have no 'intrusive r' may find it odd, it too is a perfectly valid feature

Actually it's perfectly ignorant, per se.

Nia is a Welsh name, and fairly common in the Principality.

The letter "R" does tend to creep in where it doesnt belong...ie as a link between two vowels. It just sort of naturally appears in speech simply because it makes it easier to say. "I saw Andy yesterday" can come out as "I sore Andy yesterday" or "I saw Randy yesterday". Unless you are a really pedantic stickler for ever so correct BBC English English, you cannae help it most of the time especially if you are talking informally with mates. But (sorry to start a sentence with a conjunction but I'm not a stickler really) even the BBC personnel are prone to the intrusive "R"...frequently. Just tune in sometime and hear "The Prime Minster rand his Deputy spoke at lenghth about.....". Maybe that would not occur in America (r)as they are much more rhotic than the English.

<<I now understand why some poeple hate the English because of not pronouncing r's where they are, and placing r's where there aren't.>>

Anyone who 'hates' a group of people for their pronunciation of a letter has some serious issues. :(

<<The funny thing is most people who do this don't even realize it unless you point it out.>>

That's so true!! I didn't even realise that I did this till I read this thread! I do say 'the idea(r) of' 'I saw(r) a' and 'the media(r) is'. Now I'm thinking, sheesh, have I been talking like this all my life?! Why did no-one tell me??

However, as Kirk says, I really don't think that it would cause any communication problems. It never has for me, which is probably why I've never been aware of doing it before. I live with a Canadian and he's never commented on it, though he often teases me about my pronunciation.

<<Then there's the old "drawring" for drawing pronunciation which is the only natural way to say it if you've never actually pronounced it "draw-ing".>>

Personally I don't say 'drawring', but I know lots of people who do.

>>That's so true!! I didn't even realise that I did this till I read this thread! I do say 'the idea(r) of' 'I saw(r) a' and 'the media(r) is'. Now I'm thinking, sheesh, have I been talking like this all my life?! Why did no-one tell me??<<

It takes a rhotic speaker to notice it.

>>Personally I don't say 'drawring', but I know lots of people who do.<<

Well, there's no reason why a non-rhotic speaker would even notice a difference between "draw-ing" and "draw-ring" considering the vowel boundaries are the same as in those other examples.

"Actually after the colonies Britain decided to changed their accents "

Did we?

I never knew about this.

<<However, as Kirk says, I really don't think that it would cause any communication problems. It never has for me, which is probably why I've never been aware of doing it before. I live with a Canadian and he's never commented on it, though he often teases me about my pronunciation.>>

It wouldn't, certainly. But I was actually talking about non-native speakers that are used to rhothic accents, I don't know, say people from Israel, for instance. Much of them have a really grim time when they face an English accent with certain features that are atypical in most of rhothic accents they're used to hear. God, that's happened to me loads of times.

And, I wasn't serious about people hating the English just because of pronunciation, It was actually a joke, but I guess I took it a bit too far, sorry.

<<>>That's so true!! I didn't even realise that I did this till I read this thread! I do say 'the idea(r) of' 'I saw(r) a' and 'the media(r) is'. Now I'm thinking, sheesh, have I been talking like this all my life?! Why did no-one tell me??<<

It takes a rhotic speaker to notice it.>>

One of the few productive things that on of those 'guest' says. Usually, only rhotic speakers can notice this feature inmediately, but they don't say anything. Even if they had the chance they wouldn't. Because it's fun to hear someone speaking like that, lol.

>>Personally I don't say 'drawring', but I know lots of people who do.<<

Yeah, but it sounds a bit bizarre to me.

>>"Actually after the colonies Britain decided to changed their accents "

Did we?

I never knew about this.<<

LOL. No comments!

I don't say "draw-ring" for the simple reason that my mother repeatedly corrected me when I was a kid. Obviously, people wha' speak estu'ry english don' 'ave a mavver like mine!

I doubt the American accent today (as a whole) is closer to the orginal settlers from the British Isles nor the people who remained in Britan during the 15th and 16 century.

Though I would think he/she was referring to the basic American vocab where they have retrained cetain words from the 15th and 16th century Britan while the 'motherland' lost them from their vacab. The basic vocab of American English is like a British vocab time capsule. (Correct me if I'm wrong - I'm basically writing from General information I pick up now and then.)

I would place my bet that the New Englanders and the East Coast Canadians are as 'British' as you get them on the North American Mainland. (too bad they haven't retrain the British habit of tea and scones time - would love to have tea overlooking the beauiful Western Canadian or New Englland coastline)

The fact one person pointed out earlier that the British 'changed' their accent. I would change the word 'change' to 'evolved'. (probably a honest mistake or the work of a troll? - who knows)

<The American rhotic accent. All other accents are underpronouncing the most important letter in the language. >

And please explain how in God's World did you know that the letter R is the must important letter in the English language.

Same thing could be said about Americans - why do you over pronounce the letter R? It's a matter of opinion I say.

My opinion is either learn the dialect (mmm unsure but should I use the term 'dialect'?) closest to you. Heresay I live in Mexico (an example) I would think American English would be more beneficial to me as I'm more likely to interact with Americans than the British.

Or (apparently I heard) is best to learn British English first as it is 'harder' compared to the more streamlined American English. So when you learn American English its simply taking a 'step down'.

<<North American Mainland.... to bad they haven't retrain the British habit of tea and scones time - would love to have tea overlooking the beauiful Western Canadian or New Englland coastline>>

Tea is a comparitively more recent beverage and didn't really become popular until the 18th and 19th Centuries. Large British cities had coffee houses from the 17th Century- Pepys mentions them many times in his diary.

Many things associated with Britain are reasonably recent- like fish and chips. The first chip shop only opened in about 1860, compare that to pasta - which many people consider to be modern Italian- and you can find recipes in English cookbooks as far back as the 14th Century.

The American revolution, or war of independance as we are supposed to call it now ;) started because of Tea, or the tax on it rather, and the monopoly of the east India company, I think, and American would be best placed to explain. So it is supprising that you can only find Ice Tea in supermarkets, or herbal ones. We spent ages looking for somewhere to get Yorkshire Tea, and we found it in a tiny section of a Wal Mart shelve devoted to British tourists, we did the whole Peter Kay "look they have chocolate fingers too! and they taste the same!!" thing, though the Kit Kats are different.

>>I would place my bet that the New Englanders and the East Coast Canadians are as 'British' as you get them on the North American Mainland. (too bad they haven't retrain the British habit of tea and scones time - would love to have tea overlooking the beauiful Western Canadian or New Englland coastline)<<

I would definitely agree myself.

>>The fact one person pointed out earlier that the British 'changed' their accent. I would change the word 'change' to 'evolved'. (probably a honest mistake or the work of a troll? - who knows)<<

The problem with both "changed" and "evolved" here is that it implies some kind of intentional action on the part of English English speakers, and of course language change is definitely not "intentional" on a population level. However, you could definitely refer to their *accent* changing, on the other hand.

>><The American rhotic accent. All other accents are underpronouncing the most important letter in the language. >

And please explain how in God's World did you know that the letter R is the must important letter in the English language.<<

I would assume that the poster in question was at least partially speaking in jest there myself.

>>My opinion is either learn the dialect (mmm unsure but should I use the term 'dialect'?) closest to you. Heresay I live in Mexico (an example) I would think American English would be more beneficial to me as I'm more likely to interact with Americans than the British.<<

Yes, "dialect" is the right word to use here.