Linking R

Most non-rhotic speakers - which is a term for people who "drop the R sound" after a vowel - bring that R sound back if that word goes into a vowel sound at the beginning of the word that follows. For example: fair can sound like "feah" in a non-rhotic accent, but when you say the phrase fair enough, the R may come back in, so that it sound like feah-renough - almost as though the R is attached to the word that follows. Jim leads you through this idea here.

Here's a transcript:

Hey there Jim Johnson for AccentHelp.com, and I've talked about rhotic versus non-rhotic accents. So now I want to talk about linking Rs.

It's very common in a non-rhotic accent, which means that you will tend to drop Rs after vowels, so in a word like DARK it may sound more like "dahk," so that R is sort of gone there. "dahk" MORE becoming "moah" CLEAR becoming "cleah." So that's a non-rhotic accent. Rhotic, rhoticity, that means R. So it means the R is gone.

Now what tends to happen is that when you have another vowel after it, it comes back in. So if you have the word FEAR, it will tend to become "feah." so the second half, that R at the end, after the vowel, will tend to go away.

And it's okay if there's a consonant after it, so if you have a word like DARK, that R will still go away: "dahk."

But if you take this word FEAR, and you bring a vowel after it, so we have the word FEARING, that R will tend to come back in: "feah, fearing, fearing." That R comes back in because it's a linking R, linking into the vowel that follows.

So even in a non-rhotic accent where the R will tend to drop after a vowel, that R will come back in in linking into a vowel afterwards. So that's why in a word like VERY, the R would stay there for a non-rhotic accent: "very." Because it's got another vowel right after it.

Well this same thing can happen when what's following it is another word that starts with a vowel sound. So "fear of" "fear" "fear of" "a fear of something" So that R comes back in even though it's in a separate word because it's linking.Nnow sometimes people will put a little pause there: "a fear of something." You might have the R stay away, but it's very likely you will link and bring it in: "fear of" "a fear of"

And then it's almost like that R is more on the word that follows then on the original word: "fear of." So you don't want to make the mistake of going, "I have a fear of." Because it should be more like "I have a fear of" so you're holding off on that R as long as you can, and then it comes in at the beginning of the next word. So that it's linking between. So that's what's commonly called a linking R.

This R is not going to come back in because it's got a consonant after it, so there's not an opportunity for another vowel after it to make it come back in to link through. So a linking R is a very common thing for a non-rhotic accent.

I'll also say that if you've got a rhotic accent and somebody says, "fear," if you put it, if you have it going into a vowel as well: "fear of" - the R tends to become a little bit harder: "fear" "fear of." And in that action of going into the next one the R becomes a little bit stronger and harder. So that instead of noting it perhaps as a schwa rhoticity, which would be very common: "fear." If we make it "of" happening after it or the actual the actual IPA "of," you might actually get more of a hard-R happening there. "Fear of"iIn that action of linking through it. "Fearing."

It tends to become a little bit of a harder R in a rhotic accent, and it simply comes back and exists in a non-rhotic accent.

So that's the effect of linking into a vowel for Rs.

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