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Perception (non)-Rhoticy | ||
Tags: Pronunciation | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ReQuest Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5023 days ago 200 posts - 228 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 9 27 May 2012 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok So, me and my accent in English have had a long hate/love relationship, and a couple of months back, I finally decided that I wanted to speak like a American, rather then a Brit.
But there is one feature which I find a bit harder to addopt, and that's rhotic pronunciation, thus I now pronounce words like forever, like forevah, and hard, like hahd. I know aswell that there are a few places in the US left, where people speak this way. But what I wanted to ask : how is the perception of the general American towards non-rhoticy or R-lessness? Do they look down upon it? Is it socially acceptable? And also across the ocean, in Britain, non-rhoticy seems to be the standard, how does the general Brit perceive rhotic pronunciation? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5074 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 2 of 9 27 May 2012 at 1:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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It depends. Foreign non-rhotic accents in the US can be prestigious or seem exotic or
interesting, but local non-rhotic accents (namely some African American and Northeastern ones) are heavily stigmatized. The same is true in England, where the American accent is not particularly looked down upon but the equally rhotic West Country accent is seen as one of uneducated rural people. As a Dutch person you shouldn't worry because essentially you'll end up with a foreign accent with American influence, so no-one's going to perceive you as some West Country bumpkin. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5057 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 3 of 9 27 May 2012 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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In New York, non-rhoticy is associated with a Bostonian accent. There's a popular saying that Bostonians
pronounce "Park the car in Harvard yard" as "Pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd" while New Yorkers make a point to pronounce those r's. If you failed to pronounce the r's in New York, you might be mistaken for a Bostonian or from "Juhsey" (New Jersey) and you might get a bit made fun of if you sound like you're from especially the latter but it's certainly acceptable once people get to know you, partly because it sounds regional rather than foreign. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lecavaleur Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4768 days ago 146 posts - 295 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 9 05 June 2012 at 7:48am | IP Logged | ||
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As an American who speaks a standard, rhotic American English, I admit that I have always
been kind of repulsed by the Northeastern non-rhotic accents (working-class NYC, Boston/New England). To me they can often come off as dumb and agressive, though of course that is only a stigma and not actually true. But you grow up kind of assimilating those stereotypes and associating certain accents with certain behaviours, etc... However, the African-American vernacular as well as certain Southern non-rhotic accents do not offend my ears since I do not find them to be agressive the way, say, a Boston accent can sound. It's all completely subjective nonsense anyway, but as long as you're asking... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5823 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 5 of 9 05 June 2012 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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The word is rhoticity not rhoticy.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jdmoncada Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5025 days ago 470 posts - 741 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Finnish Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 6 of 9 05 June 2012 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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The only non-rhotic accent I know about is the Boston one, and I personally just don't like how it sounds. I could talk to a person from that area, but unless I find the individual interesting, I may try to exit conversation quickly.
A long time ago, I tried to explain the American rhotic R to a Flemish speaking ex-friend of mine. She always had such trouble with it. To me it was always the sound that naturally happened between other sounds, like the glide in between. It seemed to help her for what she needed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lingua nova Newbie United States Joined 4546 days ago 25 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Indonesian, Tagalog, French | Message 7 of 9 05 June 2012 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm from New York, too, and while I agree that we love to laugh at the "Baaah- stonians'" peculiar way of pronouncing words like "paaahk" or "caahfee," I don't think that non-rhoticity is the deciding factor when talking about the features of a Boston accent. What I'm getting at, is, that I don't think if a native Dutch speaker comes to New York and doesn't pronounce his r's, that he's at all going to be mistaken for a Bostonian. There's a certain set of prosodic features that come together, like they do with all accents and languages, to create the accent. I'm inclined to think he'd likely sound to most New Yorkers like a Dutchman (or, more generally, a "European") who learned his English in or around the UK. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ReQuest Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5023 days ago 200 posts - 228 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, French Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 9 05 June 2012 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you guys for the replies!
I actually am trying to pronounce all the r now, it's actually not that hard but just different. Though in words like water or there it's hard to get rid of, but I'll keep on trying to sound as general American as possible. P.s. Sorry for my ignorance: rhoticity Edited by ReQuest on 05 June 2012 at 7:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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