Perhaps the biggest divide in the way English is spoken around the world is between its rhotic and non-rhotic varieties.
Let me nail my colours to the mast: I am a rhotic English speaker. Most Scots are: we properly pronounce our Rs. But many English-speaking countries are non-rhotic: they don’t always pronounce an R.
This sprang to mind when I heard an Englishman use the words floor and flaw in quick succession. The words sounded almost exactly alike.
Floor has a final R. It needs that R. The non-rhotic English and Australian accents have great problems with this. A drawer is not a draw. Your is not yoh. Four is not foh.
In these accents, the problem is always when an R follows a vowel, but is not followed by another vowel sound. The word tapers off into nothingness. Hair, bar, there, and fur are further (not fuhthuh) examples.
Yet the non-rhotics seem to be able to pronounce an R when it starts a word. It is a lazy way to treat the language.
I don’t like glottal stops either. The missing T in the spoken butter, water, or bitten. That tall, thin fellow who appears in adverts for a car-selling firm on TV (Rylan something or other) combines a glottal stop with a non-rhotic ending when saying “motor”. He says “moh-ahh”.
Although he appears to be a cheery chap, his pronunciation of this particular word grates upon me. Indeed, I am perplexed as to why any company would employ a person who makes not one but two pronunciation mistakes when uttering the name of the product they are trying to sell!
When I say motor, butter, hair, or car I don’t overdo it, but I clearly sound the Rs and Ts. These words contain letters that must be used if they are to be understood.
And I would argue that my way is the correct way. When I say “fur”, you can clearly hear the F, the vowel in the middle, and the R. There is no mistaking my meaning.
I usually write about written English as that is my chief interest. But the written and spoken versions of our language are so interlinked that one will always influence the other. Therefore, I fear it may not be long before horse is spelled haws or square becomes squah.
That can’t be allowed to happen.
To dumb down the way we pronounce or spell words isn’t evolution of the language, it is a lessening of the language. And every time our language loses even a little bit of complexity it becomes more of a blunt instrument than a precision tool.
Word of the week
Baryphony (noun)
A difficulty of speech. EG: “Many English speakers appear to have a baryphony when pronouncing an R”.
Read the latest Oh my word! every Saturday in The Courier. Contact me at sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk
