keannu
VIP Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2010
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Korean
- Home Country
- South Korea
- Current Location
- South Korea
I'd say that such lowering is also rare even when the linking or intrusive /r/ is not present. Cruttenden (2001), in his revision of Gimson (1962) notes "In Refined RP, final /ə/ will be below mod-open (= [ɐ]) and may even approach /ɑ:/, so that the two vowels in father become similar.Received Pronunciation examples of lowered word-final /ər/:
employer /ɪmˈplɔɪ̯ə/, [ɪmˈpʰlɔɪ̯ɐ]
water /ˈwɔːtə/, [ˈwɔːtɐ]
better /ˈbetə/, [ˈbetɐ]
Note that first: such lowering is very rare at best (or probably inexistent) when the linking or intrusive /r/ is present, ...
I agree. Some writers have started using other terms; I think the IPA's "Standard Southern British" is not bad, but even that is misleading. Trudgill suggested somewhere that only about 3% of the population speak this, so 'standard' is pretty meaningless. Also, 'Southern English (English)' would be closer to the mark. For too long we have used 'British English' when we usually mean 'English English'.Maybe it's time to stop using the name RP altogether, as it starts to become somewhat ambiguous and therefore imprecise.
If you have a question about the English language and would like to ask one of our many English teachers and language experts, please click the button below to let us know: