Is there a word for people who pronounce "r" as "w"?
Chris, Mt Victoria, Australia
- I believe that an 'r' pronounced as a 'w' is called a Winchester R. I think this is in reference to a public school (but I am not certain).
Chris McKenna, Swansea Wales
- I believe Anthony Burgess used the term rhombacism for the inability to sound rs.
Matthew Grime, State College USA
- Not according to the OED. The word for the practice of pronouncing 'r' as 'w' (or indeed pronouncing 'r' in any strange or exaggerated way) is "rhotacism" (or "rotacism"). You can also "rhotacize" or employ "rhotacization". Clearly, therefore there should be "rhotacists" to do all this rhotacizing. But as far as I know this is the world premiere of this word.
John Lloyd, Wantage UK
- A ranker?
Bertram Basset, Birmingham UK
- Iwwitating
Mary McGrath, Dublin
- Thanks for the info. Now all I need to know is whether a lisping rhotavist would be annoyed at having to pronounce lithping wotavitht!
Chris, Mt Victoria NSW Australia
- Dysrhotic.
Pete, Brixton
- Strictly speaking, the /r/ is not pronounced as a /w/, but is more 'w'-like than other kinds of /r/. As the resulting sound (in most cases) seems to have acoustic similarities with normal approximant /r/ (as in Standard British and American English), and functions as /r/ in that person's phonology, to call the 'w'-like /r/ sound a "non-rhotic" is misleading. It's often described as a labiodental /r/, but my phonetic research here in Cambridge suggests it has some velarisation (like 'w'). Hypolingual /r/ is a term which has been used in some phonetic literature, but that doesn't make the people who use it "hypolinguists". It's also worth pointing out that this kind of /r/ is increasing massively in young peoples' speech in parts of England, so it may soon gain the upper hand.
Mark Jones, Cambridge, UK
- I 'suffer' from such a problem, and some idiots on this thread are just that, idiots.
Patrick, Dalkey Ireland
