Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 February 15

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February 15

Word that means 'overemphasing the R in speech'

It's obsolete - I saw it decades ago, in an article where the word was cited as a bit of eccentricity found in a v old dictionary.

I'm pretty sure it's not 'rhotic'. I might be imagining it, but I remember a judgemental tone to this word - if you've got a West Country accent, too bad, you don't speak right.

Thank you! Adambrowne666 (talk) 07:00, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Could be rhotacism (which is a dab page)? I'm not sure exactly what it means. I'm pretty sure it doesn't include General American rhotic accents. But maybe UK folks are not supposed to have them, or something? Or maybe it's talking about intrusive r — "lawrandorder" and suchlike? --Trovatore (talk) 07:33, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Rolling is when your tongue vibrates on the r like ringing a bell quickly and makes like a vibrating durrr noise (like Scottish emphasis), articles at Rolled R, here here is a talk on it, ~ R.T.G 09:29, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

Adambrowne666 -- Traditionally, a trilled "r" was known as the "canine letter" or "snarling letter", due to its resemblance to a dog's snarl (see https://wordhistories.net/2017/07/08/dogs-letter-origin/ ), but I'm not sure there's any noun word which means "pronouncing your r's in a snarling manner"... AnonMoos (talk) 12:06, 15 February 2019 (UTC)

International Talk Like a Pirate Day is worth reading. Cullen³²⁸ Let's discuss it 02:03, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone; sorry for the late response. That's cool about the trilled R being called the canine letter - although I'm not talking about rolled Rs and trills here, Im keeping that datum for later use anyway. I'm going to settle for rhoticity as the word I'm looking for. I was put off by the other use, as a speech impediment. I think, too, my memory of the word is so de-rezzed by time and crapulous habits that there was no real chance of recovering it.

Also, it's nice to see some familiar names here - haven't seen you guys for years. Adambrowne666 (talk) 06:20, 19 February 2019 (UTC)