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In certain varieties of non-rhotic English, /r/ can only occur prevocalically, as in red, rope, arrive, etc. and never before a consonant or pause. But such non-rhotic systems typically show a certain alternation of zero with /r/; thus while /r/ does not appear pre- pausally in an item like fear [fio], it does show up, apparently in the same item, before a vowel, as in fe a r o/[fi3J ov]. W henever such an occurrence of /r/ is recognized as 'etymologically justified' the /r/ is termed 'Linking' (as m fe a r o/above); otherwise it is termed 'Intrusive' (as in, for example, drawing [djouiq] or law and order [b ;j ondoido]). More precisely, the labels 'Linking r' and 'Intrusive r' are used in the description of non- rhotic English to describe certain instances of pre-vocalic /r/. The term 'linking r' is used to refer to the occurrence o f/r/ after certain vowels, namely, [a:], [o:] and [o], when the following morpheme begins with a vowel. In (la ) and (lb ) below I have set out some examples which illustrate linking r in RP:

(l)(a)

fear of [fiojov] door open [dououpii]

(b)

f e a r t h e [ f i a ô a ] d o o r s h u t [da: j A t ]

f a r f r o m [fa: fiam]

The term 'intrusive r', like the term 'linking r', refers to the appearance of /r/ between final [a:], [a:], and [a] and a following vowel initial morpheme. As mentioned above, two distinct terms have been employed because linking r has traditionally been regarded as the historical /r/ 're-emerging', whereas intrusive r has no such etymological

justification. (2) below presents some classical examples of intrusive r, once again from R P(G im son 1980, Wells 1982)':

(2)

idea of [aidiai av] Shah of [Jq:! av] law and [la:j and]

The use of both linking and intrusive r is optional in the examples given above. So, for exam ple,year o/m ay be pronounced [fia av], [fia? av] or [fiaj av]. Wells (1982) claims that r-sandhi is the most common of the three alternatives.

A second case of what must be strictly classified as intrusive r comes from English speakers of foreign languages. Wells (1982: 226) observes:

' Brown (1988) makes a very interesting point with respect to an instance of intrusive r. Consider a

word such as banana. The word has no 'r' in the spelling and so given the definition of intrusive r any

occurrence of /r/ should be intrusive as in: bananary taste [banainoji teist]. But as Brown points out

why is it that the occurrence of /r/ in this case, where the r is as 'intrusive' as that in drawing [djo:jiq],

(3)

"...I have often heard instances such as j 'étais deja/r/ ici, ich bin ja/r/ auch fertig, tic estas interesa/r/ ideo, fe wela/r/ i rywbeth. Choirmasters have to admonish against alpha/r/ es et O, gloria/r/ in excelsis, and viva/r/ Espania."

Wells observes that intrusive r can also occur when foreign words are incorporated into sentences. He provides the following examples from his own observations.

(4) Degas /d eig a:r/ and Sickert. Dada/r/ism

the social milieu /m idjsir/ of Alexander Pope, the ju n ta /x u n to r/ in Chile. (Wells 1982: 226)

Several accounts of linking and intrusive r have been proposed, notably those of Mohanan 1986, Wells 1982, Nespor and Vogel 1986, McCarthy 1993 and Harris 1994. The accounts provide an adequate description of their data in each case, but they remain, from a theoretical point of view, arbitrary and non-explanatory.^

Most accounts focus on linking and intrusive r in so-called 'Received Pronunciation' (RP)^ only, and until recently, little or nothing has been said about other non-rhotic accents.A rguably, one reason why these accounts fail to convincingly account for r-

^ In chapter 1 we have already seen that a 'non-arbitrary' account is Judged to be one which establishes a direct and principled relationship between a phonological process and the context in which it occurs. ^ It is not clear that Received Pronunciation in the strictest sense of the term exists as a living system. John Harris has suggested that 'Received Pronunciation' might better be considered to have the status of an 'ideal form'. Similar ideals exist in Arabic and in Mongolian (Charette, pc). Should RP exist as a living system, it will be a form of Standard Southern English; so, although I shall use the term RP' throughout, this should be understood as RP and Standard Southern English more generally.

McCarthy (1993) provides an Optimality account of r-sandhi in Boston English (see section 2.2.3 below). Harris (1990, 1994) describes four systems. System A is fully rhotic. System D stands at the opposite pole in that it is non-rhotic and lacks both linking and intrusive r. System C is non-rhotic with linking and intrusive r and System B is non-rhotic and has linking r without intrusive r. However, in a footnote Harris gives an example of system B as RP and acknowledges that more usually speakers of this Accent in fact fall into system C.

sandhi is that RP in isolation is a poor data base. It is a poor data source because RP speakers variably suppress intrusive r and this suppression has often been interpreted in the literature as the phonological absence of intrusive r.^ Broadbent 1991 considers not only RP data but also data from a different non-rhotic system : W est Yorkshire (WY). WY as opposed to RP shows no suppression of so-called intrusive r and so Broadbent claims that WY and RP do not differ as regards the grammar of /r/, but that amongst RP speakers intrusive r is subject to (variable) socially motivated suppression.^ However, such suppression should not be reflected in a grammatical analysis, and grammatical generalization is only possible once we have abstracted away from such 'sociolinguistic' suppression. In Broadbent 1991, no distinction is made between linking and intrusive r from the point of view of grammatical theory.

Having established what the r-sandhi problem entails, I shall now consider a number of contemporary accounts of r-sandhi.

^ One example of an analysis which assumes the phonological absence of intrusive r in RP is Mohanan (1986). Nespor and Vogel (1986) assume that RP has both linking and intrusive r. Note, however, that although Mohanan and Nespor and Vogel disagree as to the facts, the data source cited in both cases is the same, namely Gimson (1980). When we consult Gimson, we find that RP does have intrusive r, but that intrusive r is highly stigmatised and subject to sociolinguistic suppression. Gimson writes that

"... By analogy, this /r/ linking usage is extended to all /a:, o;, o/ endings, even when there

is no historical (spelling) justification. Such intrusive Ms are to be heard particularly in

thecase of h / endings, e.g. Russia and China /rAjojon ^amo/...idea of /aidi3J3v/,...Less

frequently analogous links unjustified by the spelling, are made with final /a: o:/ e.g. Shah of Persia /Ja;j3vp3:33/, law and order /b:j9no:d3/...I saw it /aisouit/, drawing /dao;jiq/ are generally disapproved of, though it is likely that many RP speakers have to make a conscious effort to avoid the use of such forms".

(See also Wells (1982 Vol 1 Section 3.2.3) Walmsley 1973 and Windsor Lewis (1975) in this regard.) ^ In Boston English, there may be evident

occurs in certain cases (see 2.2.3 below).