Linking/Intrusive r

>><<Does you CURE undergo a split like many others' here CURE does?>>

Yes - like many Americans, I have a split where "sure" and most of the historical [jU@`] words use [(j)3`], whereas the other words like "moor, poor, tour" use [U@`]. <<

Note that said split is not always complete in dialects affected by such. For instance, in the dialect here there exists alternations based on register and stress between [ju:R] and [jR=:] for words like "sure" and "cure" rather than such having consistently been shifted to [jR=:]. Just for the record, words like "moor", "poor", and "tour" all have [u:R] IMD, as one would expect here.

In my dialect, the only exception to this is the more progressive informal pronunciation of "sure" as [tSR=:] instead of the more conservative informal pronunciation of it as [SR=:], which does not have a counterpart *[tSu:R] to match the careful/emphatic conservative realization [Su:R].

Travis: This may be off-topic, but I noticed that you use [R] in your broad transcriptions. Is this the voiced uvular fricative? Do you use it instead of [r\] everywhere?

>>Travis: This may be off-topic, but I noticed that you use [R] in your broad transcriptions. Is this the voiced uvular fricative? Do you use it instead of [r\] everywhere?<<

This is actually a uvular approximant, not a uvular fricative, besides in some limited cases (such as sometimes in /kr/); it just so happens that IPA, and thus X-SAMPA, merges the two together in a single symbol that can only be distinguished with diacritics, where this would be [R_o].

That said, I do not [R_o] in all positions, as I never use it after coronals, where I use a laminal postalveolar approximant (which I normally write as [r\] for short), and after labials I generally have [r\] and only sporadically use [R_o]. I always have this, though, in codas and intervocalically. Note that the preceding distribution is not affected by word boundaries; word-initial /r/ will be [r\] if a preceding word ends in a coronal, generally will be [r\] if a preceding word ends in a labial, and otherwise will be [R_o].

Thank you Travis, for clarifying that. I'll be on the lookout for those different rhotics among native speakers. Do you think I can find them in upstate New York?

<<Thank you Travis, for clarifying that. I'll be on the lookout for those different rhotics among native speakers. Do you think I can find them in upstate New York?>>

If you go to London, you'll find [P\], but that's not actually a rhotic, just how the "r" phoneme is realized.

<<If you go to London, you'll find [P\], but that's not actually a rhotic, just how the "r" phoneme is realized.>>

I have [P\] variably in syllable initials. My regular [r\] is also very rounded, almost like [r\_w].

<<I have [P\] variably in syllable initials. My regular [r\] is also very rounded, almost like [r\_w].>>

That's interesting. My "r" does various things. Word initially before a stressed vowel and at the end of a consonant cluster it can become [w], while in other positions it's [r\] or disappears entirely. Also word-finally in words like "car", "bar" etc. where it doesn't disappear, it's velarized e.g. "car" [kja:r\_G], "bar" [ba:r\_G].

I've read that there's an accent in England that has a uvular fricative or trill (I can't remember which) for /r/.

>>Thank you Travis, for clarifying that. I'll be on the lookout for those different rhotics among native speakers. Do you think I can find them in upstate New York?<<

There are a variety of rhotics that can be found in North American English as a whole, such as alveolar approximants, postalveolar approximants, and velar approximants, with varying degrees of rounding and or pharyngealization. Note though that the uvular approximant that I have is not typical for an NAE dialect, and I myself really have little idea where it is from (one could say that it might be due to substratum influence, but in reality that is a wild guess to say the least).

Travis, have you ever heard any "celebrities" that use the same uvular r that you do? Basically, I'm trying to find a speech sample with this sound on the Internet. Any ideas?

>>Travis, have you ever heard any "celebrities" that use the same uvular r that you do? Basically, I'm trying to find a speech sample with this sound on the Internet. Any ideas? <<

Not really, primarily because I do not really hear the difference between the uvular approximant 'r' that I have and more usual sorts of 'r' in rhotic NAE dialects when I'm not listening for it, especially in media content. I do notice people using such a uvular approximant 'r' though in Real Life, when I am listening for it, for whatever reason, but then none of the people I know would count as anything resembling "celebrities".

(The only kind of rhotic that shows up in NAE that really sticks out to me is the velar approximant, and that's because it comes off as sounding like /w/ to me. I will notice that sort of rhotic even when I'm not intentionally listening for it, unlike uvular approximants.)

<<(The only kind of rhotic that shows up in NAE that really sticks out to me is the velar approximant, and that's because it comes off as sounding like /w/ to me. I will notice that sort of rhotic even when I'm not intentionally listening for it, unlike uvular approximants.)>>

Is this velar approximant rounded, or labio-velar? Because to me, a plain velar approximant would sound more like [j]. I know what you mean about /r/ sounding like /w/ though, because I have a labiodental approximant sometimes for /r/, and it sounds fairly close to /w/, especially in clusters. I've noticed another neat thing recently. I sometimes have a bilabial trill for /br/and /pr/ in syllable initials! This is an emphatic pronunciation though, so it doesn't occur that often.

Said velar approximant is unrounded and not labiovelar, from what I've gathered, but it still sounds quite similar to [w] to me superficially. Also note, though, that it is often very close to the realization of /l/ IMD, which is very commonly practically identical except after rounded vowels, where then it is actually [w], or prevocalically, where it still often shows up as [L\].

I checked on the strange rhotic in England. It's a uvular approximant or fricative (probably the former, like Travis's), and it occurs in Northumberland and Durham, though the book was old, so it might not anymore.