Intrusive '-r-'

The intrusive '-r-' is a phenomenon of pronunciation. It is to be heard in non-rhotic accents. It is a sound inserted between two vowels where no '-r-' is written. It is quite common in singing, as for example where The Beatles sang in their song A Day in the Life "I saw(r) a film today, oh boy", making the past tense 'saw' a sound like the present tense of the verb 'to soar'. Some people talk of 'draw[r]ings'. The late columnist Bernard Levin used to mock the way the British Conservative party spoke about 'law and order', claiming that their pin-up was a woman called "Laura Norder".

The intrusive '-r-' is connected with the phenomenon of the linking '-r-'. This is also a feature of non-rhotic accents - those in which an '-r' after a vowel at the end of a word is not usually pronounced, as when 'teacher' sounds like 'teach-uh' and 'far' sounds like 'fah' in most contexts. In such accents, there is a systematic exception when the word ending in vowel + '-r' precedes another word beginning with a vowel: in 'far away' and 'teacher of [maths]', the '-r' becomes perceptible.

In the light of the 'linking '-r-', the intrusive '-r' may be seen as a hypercorrection of the perceived lack of a letter 'r' at the end of a word. It can even occur in writing, as when a national newspaper printed the eccentric verb siestering, meaning 'to take a nap in the afternoon', or 'to have a siesta'. The journalist wrote it as it was presumed to have been said.

For an example, see Law - lore.