Rhoticity

Re Snarkibartfast's comment: Saying it as "Obamar" makes it sound like one is calling a terrorist. A word laden with too many "r"s for this context.

Arabic Translator: Most non-rhotics put their Rs back when a vowel follows. People who speak African-American English mostly don't, however: they say "heah and theah", not "here and theah".

For the last few days, there has been an article on the Economist web site about commercial real estate, titled 'Brick and Slaughter'. I was pretty certain that this was meant to be a pun or something of that sort, but it took me a very long time to figure it out. Because to my American ears 'slaughter' and 'mortar' don't even remotely rhyme.

I'm from Ohio and moved to Kentucky some years ago. Here there is this odd, and I imagine idiosyncratic pronunciation by a few here of "idea" which comes out sounding like:
"Where did he go?"
"I have no ideal."

No, UK non-rhotics wouldn't talk about an "r-ful sense of humour", because they generally don't merge father/bother or cot/caught - so "r-ful" sounds like "ah-ful" but not like "aw-ful".

"Awful" *would* sound exactly like "or-ful", but that doesn't make the right pun, I suppose.

I was in my late thirties before I finally realised that Eeyore received his name because that is the sound donkeys make. Having only heard the American pronunciation of his name, it never occured to me.

The Rhode Island accent (New England) combines non-rhoticity with hyper-rhoticity. Hence, "I need the cah to go get the pizzar."

Oh, dea(r)! For most Asian speakers of English as a foreign language, the best that can be done for rhoticity is hypo-rhoticity. As to jokes, I am reminded of another Johnson piece on Chinese puns. Keep learning, one day we will appreciate all the nuances of cultural differences, from macro to micro (humor included), via the study of linguistic differences, from sounds to meanings, words to immutable ways of experiencing and thinking about the world.

"Most English people and nearly all city-dwellers don't pronounce the r after a vowel"

Or rather, "Most English people and nearly all ENGLISH city-dwellers". (The biggest exception presumably being Bristol.)

RLG, yeah, the joke was a staple in my family, all of whom have lived in or around Omaha since the late 19th century. I haven't lived there for about 6.5 years, but I've never noticed any rhoticity like this generally.

It might just be that my dad was a big hunter and a fan of awful puns.

Idear for idea among rhotic American speakers (and as Mr. Vitamin points out, there are non-rhotic Americans too) is more of an idiosyncratic individual usage that doesn't follow the regular rules of linking/intrusive r.

Mr. Vitamin: Note that although Boston party sounds to rhotic Americans like potty (which is why the joke works), Boston potty sounds quite different.

Today's NYTimes crossword has good rhotic humor at 25-across:

http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/je-ne-sais-quoi/
has the puzzle and the answers.

The first time I can recall hearing this was when my mother commented how President Kennedy used to talk - in his hyper-rhotic Boston accent - about Russian missiles in "Cuber".

And I remember thinking:

"What's a Cuber? And, what the hell is it doing with Russian missiles?"

Unless it's changed, the dialect around Omaha, NE, has no such hyper-rhoticity and yet when I was a kid, I heard that joke a LOT. And it was great.

Once, when my wife attended a conference in Boston, a local came up and asked the information desk, "Where's the party." The foreign person at the information desk replied, "Down the hall and to the right." The Bostonian replied with rising irritation, "No, the party, the party!"

I just wonder how you missed the Shaun-the-sheep joke in an animated movie? Did you read the script or is there a Southern US dubbed version?!

*badum-tss*

Back when I canvassed, that joke was a standby on street. It's short, simple and, for whatever reason, cracks people up.

At which point you can usually get them to stop for a bit and listen.