Rogue (r)s: the history of intrusive-r
The study in a sentence
The phenomenon of intrusive-r entered the English language by means of analogy, through the extension of linking-r (as in bar of soap), which started to appear around the same time.
The change in the pattern over time is accompanied by a change in attitudes to people who use it.
The question
Speakers from Scotland, Ireland or North America typically pronounce the <r> in both bar and better, as they speak rhotic dialects of English. Many southern British English speakers, who are non-rhotic, do not pronounce the <r> in better, where it occurs before a consonant (or a pause). They do, however, pronounce the <r> in bar of soap, where it appears before a vowel.
- This phenomenon is called linking-r.
Many English speakers also pronounce an /r/ in a spa in Bath , even though there is no written <r>. So spa is pronounced as if it was spar (as in the name of the shop).
- The rogue /r/ that we hear in this case is called intrusive-r.
Other examples include: the idea of peace and law and order.
Do you pronounce an /r/ at the end of the first word in these phrases?
Like linking-r, intrusive-r only appears when the following word in the phrase starts with a vowel.
An example of analogy:
A (mother) : B (daughter)
X (father) : [?] (son)
Key concept
- Analogy is a common source of language change, particularly in morphology (word formation).
- Analogy often serves to regularize paradigms, such as the singular/plural of nouns, and the past tense of verbs, both of which have become more regular over time in English, through analogy.
- Analogy creates new linguistic forms by extending an existing pattern into a new environment.
- It is based on proportions, like questions found in verbal reasoning tests, which is something human beings usually find quite easy:
- e.g. A is to B as X is to [?] (mother is to daughter as father is to ?)
- where the task is to supply the word or letter that stands for [?] (son).
- e.g. A is to B as X is to [?] (mother is to daughter as father is to ?)
- It is based on proportions, like questions found in verbal reasoning tests, which is something human beings usually find quite easy:
- In the case of analogical linguistic change, the form [?] doesn’t exist at first but is created by speakers on the basis of the relationships between A and B and between A and X.
Why is intrusive-r present in the speech of many English speakers, and where did it come from?
If the /r/ is not really part of the word, is it 'wrong'?
Methods: Levels of Transcription
There is often a difference between the written form of a word and its pronunciation.
- The written or orthographic form is usually shown in italics or between angled brackets: < >
- The 'dictionary' form (phonemic transcription) is usually shown in slanted brackets: / /
- The observed pronunciation (narrow transcription) is shown in square brackets: [ ]
- we can see the intrusive-r here in the narrow transcription of a spa in Bath
- and also assimilation of the final nasal sound in <in> to the /b/ at the start of Bath
When sociolinguists want to talk about a sound that differs from one accent to another (a variable), they will show the sound inside ordinary curved brackets ( ) as we have done in the title here.
![Stage 1: linking-r only. Before a consonant or a pause: with /r/ "what a dea[r]" versus without /r/ "what an idea". Before a vowel: with /r/ "dear Amanda" versus without /r/ "the idea of it". Stage 2: intrusive-r emerges. Before a consonant or a pause: with /r/ "what a dea[r]" versus without /r/ "what an idea". Before a vowel: with /r/ "dear Amanda" versus without /r/ "the idea[r] of it".](https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/3hf1fH0bkzurUvnwVqpkabOQRmWS-RXsxjQPEwDkUBa6rZF_fhE0fVwR9hcw1TnI5oIAv8IDDT8hm2UwBZo0icf-Jdq_xck8zmAQ2vZ_nmzzJwDG=w1280)
How does the pattern of language change by analogy work?
Stage 1: the pattern of pronouncing /r/ before a following vowel becomes established for words ending in written <r>.
Stage 2: The pattern extends by analogy to words containing the same vowels but that don't end in a written <r>.
The Answer (1)
The emergence of intrusive-r illustrates a common type of language change: change by analogy.
For analogy to take place, two conditions must be satisfied:
- The source (copied from) and the target (copied to) have to be structurally similar
- e.g. same part of speech (nouns, verbs etc) and/or similar phonetic shape
- The source needs to be frequent in the language and the target rare.
Are the conditions for analogy met in the case of intrusive-r?
- Yes, linking-r and intrusive-r appear in the same place (before another word starting with a vowel) and only in words containing the vowels /ə, ɔː, ɑː/.
- Source words such as letter, more and spar were far more common in the 18th century than words ending in the same vowels but written without a final <r> (such as comma, law and spa).
The Answer (2)
As to whether intrusive-r is wrong, it depends on what you mean by “wrong”.
In its early days, intrusive-r was the subject of proscription by many grammarians. Nowadays, most people produce intrusive-r without even realising it, nor do most speakers notice it in others.
Linguists do not usually concern themselves with prescriptive approaches to language, but instead adopt a descriptive approach. This means looking at language in as objective a way as possible, observing, describing and explaining what they see, in the same way scientists do.
Classroom activities
Lead in task
Listening for intrusive-r in a song.
Extension task
Testing the claim about the origin of intrusive-r in English.
In more detail
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