A century of “intrusive” R in English



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As these clips show, so-called intrusive R has been a feature of standard speech in England (and presumably Wales, Australia and New Zealand) for at least a century. The term refers to a linking /r/ sound between the vowels of THOUGHT, PALM and commA and a following vowel, IF there’s no corresponding ‘r’ in the spelling.

00:00 Intro
01:57 2020s
02:18 2010s
02:38 2000s
03:02 1990s
03:23 1980s
03:43 1970s
04:07 1960s
04:28 1950s
04:50 1940s
05:17 1930s
05:43 1920s

Russian oil imports
Vaccines Royal Institution
Brexit statement
David Bowie
Nokia Gadget Show
Diana
Vanilla Ice
John Hurt Ford ad
Hamlet 1980
Grease Film 78
Hermione Gingold Liaisons
Bootleg Beatles
Ribena ad 1962
Shah of Persia British Pathé
Quatermass 2 BBC
The Paradine Case
Supply route to China British Pathé
Jamaica Inn
Lawrence funeral British Pathé
Sir Alan Cobham

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24 Comments

  1. When any of my students employ this idiot mechanic, I hold their feet to the fire and make them answer for it. "Stop right there. Spell 'Chiner' for me", "spell 'Russher' for me", "spell 'goer' for me". I turn the mirror on them and the rest of the class tears them apart for me.

  2. Dr Lindsey, do you suppose that the British Accent will go (back to being ) "rhotic" in the foreseeable (or not so) future?

    Thank you, as ever, for sharing your knowledge with the world.

    Best wishes

  3. Not trying to be mean, I TRULY love educating myself on the origin of accents as well as linguistics! 📖 🥰 I love playing Sims and I came across this nice lady’s post:

    https://youtu.be/gD6JcxMbaTw?si=KK0krTsfEa8OsCl_

    Does it sound to you as if she is pronouncing r’s with the words like: go, so, home, download, know, etc? I’m afraid if I straight out ask her where her accent is from, she might become insulted. 😨. However, I’m terribly curious.

  4. I listen to The Rest Is History and Terrible Lizards and the word that I think sounds really funny is "drawrings". Like bro, it's already got one r in there, you don't need another.

  5. I'm Finnish, and we have a very strong rolling r. To me, British accent with a strong, rolling r combined with the intrusive r is just heavenly ❤

    But, I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts, and always wondered "lore enforcement". I tried to reproduce it, but couldn't understand how people were able to say that! After watching this video, I too can say it 😁And understand now, why people say that! Fascinating ✨

  6. The intrusive R is an incredibly annoying, incorrect, and improper way to speak. It also adds confusion: 'ice' suddenly becomes 'rice', 'attention' becomes 'retention', etc. British people need to quit this bad, meaningless habit and start speaking proper English. Sincerely, a non-native English speaker who expects you to know how to speak your own language.

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