THE SILENT <R> OR THE OMNIPRESENCE OF SOMETHING ‘ABSENT’
THE SILENT <R> OR THE OMNIPRESENCE OF SOMETHING ‘ABSENT’

Summary/Abstract: For the first-year students, the most puzzling feature of standard British English must be the silent <r>. Being mostly exposed to American English, through all sorts of media channels – movies, music, social media etc. – their first lecture in British English Phonetics and Phonology sometimes proves to be a baffling experience due to the ‘omnipresence’ of the silent <r> in standard British English pronunciation.The present paper aims at shedding some light on this topic and at the same time provide learners with some tips for the ‘non-pronunciation’ of the letter <r>.

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