Traditionally, parts of Lancashire have very clearly articulated "r"s, similar to the stereotype of Cornwall and the West Country. The pronunciation of these "r"s towards the ends of words is called rhoticity.
In fact, historically, hundreds of years ago, people throughout England used to pronounce strong "r"s. But now, says the research paper, these strong "r"s are definitely dying out.
In Blackburn, young speakers do mostly say their "r"s, but they are, according to the research team, phonetically very weak and often difficult to perceive. And they pronounce them less frequently than older speakers.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I feel that the author could have fit more Rs into that title.
match@pawb.social 10 months ago
Only one of these 'r’s is rhotic though
TWeaK@lemm.ee 10 months ago
I’m all for phasing that ‘r’ out.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 10 months ago
It’s the principle of the thing.