Linking and intrusive R

Linking R and intrusive R are sandhi phenomena[1] where the rhotic consonant is pronounced as sound /r/ between two consecutive vowels with the purpose of avoiding a hiatus, that would otherwise occur in the expressions, such as tuner amp, although in isolation tuner is pronounced the same as tuna /ˈtjuːnə/ (or /ˈtuːnə/). These phenomena occur in many non-rhotic varieties of English, such as those in most of England and Wales, parts of the United States, and all of the Anglophone societies of the southern hemisphere, with the exception of South Africa. In these varieties, the sound /r/ is pronounced only when it is immediately followed by a vowel.

Linking R and intrusive R may also occur between a root morpheme and certain suffixes, such as -ing or -al. For instance, in words such as draw(r)ing, withdraw(r)al, or Kafka(r)esque.

These phenomena first appeared in English sometime after the year 1700.[2]


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