Consonants R

One of the most salient stereotypes of New York City speech is r-lessness. The pattern resembles that heard in eastern New England as well as in southern England. Non-prevocalic /r/ is vocalized, yielding pronunciations such as  here and [kaət] cart. Word final /r/ is pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel (e.g.,  here in). Also, non-etymological, “intrusive” /r/ may appear and is especially common in idea and law.

The non-rhotic status of the New York accent was noted by the Linguistic Atlas researchers and other early observers. R-lessness was characteristic of New Yorkers of all social levels through roughly the first half of the twentieth century. At some point, however, non-rhotic speech became stigmatized, and r-fulness appeared in the speech of many New Yorkers. By the time of Labov’s study in the mid-1960s, /r/ had become a strong class marker with r-lessness being more common among the lower and working classes. Today, /r/ continues to divide New Yorkers along class lines though the trend toward rhoticity appears to be progressing.