[Ads-l] The "strong r" sound at the end of words may be disappearing across the North of England, a study has found.

[James Landau]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/strong-r-in-danger-of-disappearing-study-finds/ar-AA1m92x6?cvid=506d23af530f4076d148833f02e9c267&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&ei=9&sc=shorelineps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/strong-r-in-danger-of-disappearing-study-finds/ar-AA1m92x6?cvThe"strong r" sound at the end of words may be disappearing across theNorth of England, a study has found.LancasterUniversity (LU) researchers said rhotic speakers, who pronounce "r"sounds in words like car, her and bird, were "becoming a thing of thepast" across the region, with one exception.
DrDanielle Turton said east Lancashire had remained an "island ofrhoticity".

However,the study lead said that even there, the "strong r" was in gradualdecline among young speakers.

Rhoticityis the term for speaking in an accent where an r is pronounced not only beforea vowel, but also before a consonant or at the end of words.

An LUrepresentative said hundreds of years ago, it was common in England "topronounce strong 'r's", but that has declined as the language evolved andhas been most commonly documented in Cornwall and the West Country.

Theysaid "most sociolinguistic studies of rhoticity" focused on the SouthWest and "relatively little" was known about it in the North.

"Thestudy is timely because Northern rhoticity is predicted to disappear in thenext few generations, a process which is now complete in many areas of theSouth West," they added.

DrTurton said the study, titled "An acoustic analysis of rhoticity in Lancashire, England",found that speakers from Blackburn and the surrounding area "usuallydifferentiate between pairs of words, such as 'stellar' and 'stella', whereasmost of England would consider them to be the same".

"However,for the youngest speakers in Blackburn, these 'r's are very weak, which raisesthe question of whether future generations will even hear these weak 'r's atall, and whether this distinction will eventually fade away," she said.

"Accentchange is often like a puddle: it dries up in most places and leave remnantsaround the edges, hence why Cornwall and East Lancs behave similarly heretoday."

Thestudy found the strongest 'r's' were spoken by older men, and were moreprominent during formal speaking, which they said raised "interestingquestions about social prestige and clearness of speech".



Researchersalso said that while rhotic Blackburn and East Lancashire speakers may be inthe minority in England, they were "in the majority across theEnglish-speaking world", as North American, Scottish and Irish speakersalso use that pronunciation, "as do many second language learners ofEnglish".

DrTurton said the East Lancashire 'r' was weaker than its non-Englishcompatriots, "possibly as a result of it undergoing change towards theEngland standard" and could also eventually disappear.

"Inrecent years, there has been a lot of talk about the disappearance oftraditional dialects and the linguistic homogenisation of regions inEngland," she said.

"Unfortunately,it seems that this is the case for the East Lancashire 'island of rhoticity'.

"Inthe next few generations, this traditional feature may be lost."

However,she added that all was not lost for the area's accent.
"Blackburnstill retains many other vowel features that make it unique, and changes likethis often pave the way for further linguistic evolution in the future,"she said.Jim Landau   jjjrlandau at netscape.com



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