There are, of course, a great number of differences between the American version of the English language and the British version. One fascinating one is the way the letter R is treated in speech. Most Americans pronounce it fairly strongly, similar, in fact, to the way it’s pronounced in the South West of England. In London and the surrounding counties it’s more often pronounced as an H in American. This is also true for people who speak with RP (Received Pronunciation), received, that is, from a certain type of expensive education.
Once, when I first started to visit England on business trips, I was listening to the radio in my hotel room when I heard an advert for a brand of soap call Pears (like the fruit.) At first I thought it was an ad for Pez, those little rectangular candies that come with their own dispenser. So “park” comes out as “pahk” and so on.
After a while I got used to this and don’t even hear it anymore unless I’m deliberately listening for it. But, there is one R related phenomenon that I always hear. In any country, I suppose, there is some small proportion of the population who simply cannot pronounce R’s so they sound instead more like W’s. But in the English media, there seem to be a disproportionately large percentage of people with this affliction who, as nearly as I can tell, have no other signs of speech impediments. I can only conclude that the missing R is an affectation. I have yet to discover why anyone would want to pretend to have this particular impediment. Maybe I’m “wong” and sometime in the past ”thewe” was a genetic mutation that made it impossible for a lot of media people to pronounce R’s.
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