Why do British people and some Americans put an "R" sound after a soft "A" sound?

[Dinner]

It sounds ****ing retarded. I remember making fun of my mother and grandfather for putting a "r" sound where is doesn't belong; for example "wash" would be pronounced "warsh" but there are also worrying number of British people who also insert "r"s where they do not belong calling "Obama" "Obarma" WTF?

See this video from the BBC for more details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8044735.stm

[Asher]

"Idear" -- I hate that so much.

Also roof is pronounced "roo-f", not "ruff".

[-Jrabbit]

It dates from IIRC the 1720s here in the U.S., and exists primarily in Boston, NY and Philly and along the Eastern seaboard, even down to the Carolinas and mostly among the moneyed classes.

That speech pattern originated with England's upper class, among whom it was considered a fashionable drawl (and is called, ironically enough, "r"-less speech) It migrated here with early Brit immigrants. (Often, the dishonoroed sons of the upper class were shipped to America.)

FDR was a big user of this accent. So was John Kennedy.

While so-called "R"-less speech persists today, it is no longer either fashionable nor popular.

[-Jrabbit]

Hey, here's a link:

http://books.google.com/books?id=lL6...num=1#PPA49,M1

[Dauphin]

It sounds ****ing retarded. I remember making fun of my mother and grandfather for putting a "r" sound where is doesn't belong; for example "wash" would be pronounced "warsh" but there are also worrying number of British people who also insert "r"s where they do not belong calling "Obama" "Obarma" WTF?

See this video from the BBC for more details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8044735.stm

Do you pronounce wash in such a way that it rhymes with bash, cash, dash, gash, hash, lash, mash, gnash, rash etc? If you do, that is funny.

[Imran Siddiqui]

No... he probably pronounces wash with a long a (wah-sh).

[Dauphin]

Like normal people then.

[Dauphin]

Actually, I would probably pronounce it wosh, like dosh or gosh.