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Rhoticity

This website uses symbols to transcribe phonemes (sounds). For an explanation of what these symbols represent, click here: vowels, consonants. The following special symbols are used:
ə Λ ā ē ī ō ū ű œ θ δ š ž č ĵ ŋ
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Note: an apostrophe ' is placed before the accented vowel.

Rhoticity (also rhotism, rhoticism or rhotacism) is the pronunciation of r as a distinct consonant when it is not followed by a vowel. English divides into rhotic dialects (most of Scotland, Ireland and the Americas) in which this happens and non-rhotic dialects (most of England and Wales, Australia) in which it does not.

In non-rhotic dialects, the word farm sounds like [fα:m], and with no r-sound. In rhotic dialects it sounds like [fα:Rm] (or perhaps [fαRm]) and the sound of r is heard after the vowel.

Certainly in non-rhotic dialects, and probably in most rhotic dialects as well, there are rhotic morphemes. I label the vowel morpheme in farm as /ar/. I say that this is a single morpheme in both rhotic and non-rhotic dialects. In rhotic dialects, it is always pronounced with the r-sound.

In non-rhotic dialects, a rhotic morpheme is pronounced with the r-sound only when a vowel follows it. Compare these pronunciations:

better day: /betər/ + /dē/ > [bεtə deI]
better end: /betər/ + /end/ > [bεtəR εnd]

Note how the r-sound [R] is pronounced when a vowel follows, but not when a consonant follows. That is, in non-rhotic dialects,

/ər/ > [əR] (r-sound is pronounced) before a vowel
/ər/ > [ə] (r-sound is not pronounced) when not before a vowel (before a consonant or at the end of speech)

By contrast, in rhotic dialects, /ər/ is always pronounced [əR].

If you listen to a North American trying to pronounce a German word like k�nnten, you may hear an r-sound after the first vowel, [k3Rntn], as though it were an English word spelt kurnten. This is because the vowel in the North American's dialect closest to German � is rhotic. The North American can produce [3R] but not [3] from the sounds in his own native speech. This shows that in rhotic North American English, ur (as in turn) is a single phoneme /œr/, not two distinct phonemes /œ/ + /r/.

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