The Impossible Dream: CAPTAIN R's RHOTIC MISSION

CURRENT CONTENTS 

Quixotic Dream
Non-rhotic vs Rhotic Speech 
Rhotic-Poet School
Intrusive Rs

 

Authors' Note: "Captain R" is a muse who appears episodically in the ' dreams of certain Canadian poets. R. is the authors' abbreviation for rhotic (ROA-tik) dialects in English, i.e. those that honour R-sounds as they are written. The Captain, who clearly has been influenced by the nearby letter "q" as in Don Quixote, and wears a tight-fitting shirt emblazoned with a large "R", has inspired a quest that culminated in the other verses in this collection. 

Quixotic, BTW, is used to describe ideas and actions that are foolishly impractical and romantic.

Authors' Note: The above verse represents a companion piece to the following one, rhotic-poet school  ('articulate' as it originally appeared on OEDILF) ; the author is pleased to declare that both submissions can be read with either a rhotic or non-rhotic accent.

Readers who find use of the word "rhoticity" pedantic, are advised to substitute "rotisserie".

Authors' Note:

otic: pertaining to the ear, or to hearing, as in the medical specialty oto-laryngology (ENT)

The author is pleased to explain that this verse can be read with either a rhotic or non-rhotic accent. In fact, it is highly recommended that each reader try to recite it aloud both ways.

Poor, sure, more is a trio of words often used for rhyming in poetic or song-lyric lines (a random example: I'd like to ensure / That our love will bring more). Non-rhotic speakers apparently find that these words rhyme as indicated in the phonetic renderings paw, shaw, maw. To rhotic ears, however, the partial rhyming of 'sure' and 'more' sounds as amateurish as pairing 'time' and 'fine'.

With occasional exceptions, native-born and -schooled Canadians using English are rhotic speakers, their Rs being fully sounded, even after vowels. However, we have welcomed to our shores large numbers of immigrants from around the globe who have brought their non-rhotic dialects. Their speech pattern is rendered roughly by changing all the relevant Rs to Hs, e.g. 'hard' == > 'hahd'; 'exhort == > 'exhoht'

Apparently, expert linguists have established that English was spoken only rhotically until the time of Shakespeare. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of non-rhotic speech, with the loss of 'post-vocalic R', spread until it became the dominant speech pattern in most of England, the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, Australia and several other English colonies.

Authors' Note:

celler (CHEH-ler): a large stringed instrument, imaginatively pronounced with an intrusive R; often accompanied by the pianeR, and, in the orchestreR, by the violeR, oboeR, tubeR, and piccoleR

Readers may have to stretch their credulity to accept that a ring of thieves would bring large musical instruments like cellos, stolen elsewhere, to be dumped on the UK market.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was satirized in the press as "Laura Norder" as she often reiterated the mantra "Law and Order", voiced with an intrusive R, as law-R an' order. This element of speech, frequently used by non-rhotic speakers of British and of southern hemisphere English, is likely the most common form of epenthesis, the adding of unrelated letters to ease pronunciation. Americans are not immune to this linguistic peculiarity, as witnessed by the 1950s books and movie about the Texan boy-and-his-dog "Old Yeller".

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To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time-frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Readers will likely have read the notice that as of December 2024, "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" will be converted to archive-mode, i.e. some polishing of presented posts will go on in the background, but there will generally be no brand-new material presented.  

Regrettably, for the same reasons, further regular posting of new material on the current topic-based blog will also be drawing to a close at the end of this calendar year, with sporadic exceptions. There will be some polishing and rearranging going on in the background (we have a few 'postholes' to fill in). Hence, it may still be worth your while to return and explore, to satisfy your yearning for funky humor and erudition. Thanks for your indulgence!

As time goes on, our creative impulses will be directed primarily at the song-lyric blog "Silly Songs and Satire". It already offers about 100 songs with parody-lyrics, and accompanying chord suggestions for stringed instruments such as ukulele. 

See y'all there!