Why do so many people speak the english language in such a peculiar way?

David Gareth

New member
Examples: I sor it, Lawr and Order, drawrings and many others. Also the incredible inclusion of the letter 'h' into words - shtrong, shtorm, shtruggle, thishyear, instead of this year (sounds a bit "shtupid".
 
The first is a Northeast/New England accent.

The second is typical of a lisp, which is a speech impediment.

Why didn't you mention the Canadians with "aboot (about) or some of the other North American variations.
 
I've never heard the latter except with people with some kind of lisp (like Sean Connery).

The former - "lawr and order" etc - is, at least in the UK, a feature of a number of regional accents to do with the linguistic phenomenon called "r intrusion" (see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R ).

It seems to have appeared as some kind of compensatory change following the decline of rhoticity in English, which left vowel-vowel transitions that are difficult to enunciate. As it's about 300 years old and grew up in the heartland of standard English (i.e. Received Pronunciation speakers), it may even be that since about a century ago, *not* using it is the peculiarity, and some linguists - (see Professor John Wells http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/rphappened.htm ) consider it normal for RP English.
 
fwiw its is the English themselves that randomly add the "r" sound to the end of many words. Well, maybe its not random but they overuse the hell out of that letter as well as those guys from New England.
 
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