Weird English pronunciation of Obamar

[Snarky]

I often listen to the BBC World Service while driving to work, and one quirk of English pronunciation is starting to puzzle and (mildly) irritate me.

A lot of Brits (though not all) will stick an "r" onto the end of words that end in a vowel, when they precede a word that also begins in a vowel. Lately, you've been hearing this a lot with Obama. For example: "President Obamar explained his economic policies." But you get it with a lot of other words as well, especially "saw" and "idea." ("I sawr it with my own eyes!")

Now, I can guess why this would be: Since many English dialects tend to drop the final "r" in words like "car", "mother", etc., unless they're followed by another vowel, inserting the "r" sound becomes instinctive, and speakers start doing it even where it doesn't belong.

Apparently this phenomenon is known as "intrusive R," and has been around for a long time. But it seems to have been getting much more frequent in recent years. (I don't remember hearing it when I lived in the UK, though quite possibly I just wasn't sensitive to it.)

Do any of you Englishers use it or notice it? Do you consider it incorrect?

[m0ds]

On the contrary, I've heard a lot of Americans say O-bar-mar.

But yes, especially with the more posh English accents you'll notice these r's seem more pronunciated. And to be fair, you don't get much more posh English accents than you do on World Service!

It's also just one of those things that change from place to place too. For example, as you'd expect in America with its many states some will say yeah, some will say hyip, some will say eyerr, and stuff.

In normal conversation it definitely isn't as obvious, it may not even be there -- but you have to remember that Radio presenters, TV presenters etc all have to speak slowly, clearly - and in many cases they put that final "down tone" in voice at the end of a sentance.

Those are just my thoughts Snarky! I don't know why I was compelled to answer.

[Sam.]

I personally pronounce it Oh-baa-mah.

I don't know how posh you'd say I am, but my voice is on the AGS podcasts if you want to gauge it.

[Eggie]

I pronounce it OSAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!! IRAQ HUSSEIN OSAMA!!!!!!!!

What? It's a speech impediment...

[LUniqueDan]

I'm french, so we pronunce it something like : "NIN-PORT-KEW-AHH-DOTT-SAY-PLEWS-MYU-CLOTH-TAH-RAY-DAH-VA"

But it's probably from the way "OH" and "AHH" are different from a langage to an other.
...
Sorry, Freudian Slip.

[SSH]

I say Obber muh 

Seriously though, the west country accent tends to have terminal Rs added. So Obama rhymes with "Farmer", or rather "Farmerrrrrrr". Perhaps the World Service have hired a Bristolian?

Some wierd people say "barth" instead of "bath", too.

[mkennedy]

(Quimby accent) "I'm gonna eat some Chowda and watch Dora the Explora!"

[Andail]

We were taught intrusive R's back in Uni. Not to use them, of course (unless we wanted to) but that they existed and why.

I distinctly remember hearing it in Mods' AGS opera "Helm", where the songs goes he'll draw[r] a background for you and me, so it's funny that the first to respond here is Mods himself

I hear it most often when Australians and Brits speak, and it seems very frequent in certain phrases, like "China[r] and x" and "law[r] and order".

As a non-native, I tend to notice every single time it occurs.

[Disco]

I was hosting two English friends around election time last year and they kept saying "Barack" like "bear-uhk", interesting for a name that was so widely televised

[Tuomas]

Funny thing, I think I'd really need to hear it myself before I could really tell what you're talking about. I mean. I have an idea, but I just don't hear myself pronouncing that r there in between :/

[Ali]

Now, I can guess why this would be: Since many English dialects tend to drop the final "r" in words like "car", "mother", etc., unless they're followed by another vowel, inserting the "r" sound becomes instinctive, and speakers start doing it even where it doesn't belong.

Thanks for saying English, rather than British, because the 'r' dropping is an English thing. I'm not particularly bothered 'r' adding, except in a few words like 'drawing' (draw-ring) which do annoy me.

It does annoy me when my fellow English people attempt an American or Scottish accent and add 'r's where they don't exist. "Can't" is the biggest one, a lot of English people accent the imaginary 'r' and say "Carn't" when doing an American accent in particular. That annoys me.

Not as much as the fact that the cast of Friends don't pronounce the letter 't'. The word "tomorrow" could easily be "nomorrow" and no one would notice the difference. The words "can" and "can't" are virtual homophones on that show. I don't want homophones on TV when kids could be watching.

[SSH]

Some people don't know their R's from their elbow...

[Ishmael]

When not in very imaginarily wrong places (like in "can't") I like the extra R's in spoken English. But I do like most dialects that don't try to ruin gammar anyway...

[Intense Degree]

Apparently this phenomenon is known as "intrusive R," and has been around for a long time. But it seems to have been getting much more frequent in recent years. (I don't remember hearing it when I lived in the UK, though quite possibly I just wasn't sensitive to it.)

That's interesting, i'd never heard of intrusive R's before, I always thought it was just the difference between "long A" and "short A" sounds.

I hear lots of americans saying "Ba - rarck" "oh - bam - a" which sounds weird too!

[monkey0506]

I honestly always believed it was pronounced Arr-BAR-marr. Must be a Texas thing.

Spoiler

Hell no I'm not serious. But Obamar is still the Anti-Christ.

[close]

[Revan]

Wow.. I'm English, and at first I thought; here comes another American, on his high horse, telling me that I speak and spell incorrectly.  (not sure if you are even American) 

I read your post and I was impressed: Not only did you get your point across, explaining yourself very well, and with out offending me , you have a valid point.

I didn't quite get the Obama thing until you explained further...

I pronounce Obama like this : Oh-baa-mah

However if i put it in a sentence in which the word is followed be a vowel:

"She bought Obama a new car"

I pronounce it like this : Oh-baa-mer-a   ...    'Obama a' becomes one word with an 'r' inserted...

I have never heard of this before, and never noticed it... Im gonna be cringing every time it happens now lol   

I find this very fascinating...

Also I come from the north west of England (near Manchester), and we tend to leave out the word 'the' in some sentences, depending on it's structure:

Example: "She live's up towards the shops."    Would turn into    "She live's up towards 'shops."

The gap is usually filled with a very quick, low tone, intake of breath: "She live's up towards <HUP> 'shops."

Dialect is a strange thing...

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The only pronunciations that bother me are those that inhibit my understanding of whatever the hell the person said.

[kaputtnik]

One very prominent example of this ghostly "r" is "A day in the life" by the Beatles. The song clearly goes: "I sawra film today, oh boy." I always thought this was a hallucination induced joke, now I know it was only good, clean accent.

[Trihan]

Accents have always fascinated me. It's amazing that even in one small region of the world there somehow developed a multitude of distinct accents and I've always wondered exactly how it happened and why.

[monkey0506]

The ironic thing is that the English are supposed to speak "proper English," as opposed the the wretched, bastardized "Amerikaanized Engrish." It's really quite interesting that the English do this.