1413: Rhoticity's Relationship with Vocality Oct 24, 2018

Rhoticity is defined as the quality of r "pronounced before a consonant...and at the ends of words" but this slightly problematic. The idea that in non-rhotic dialects r is not pronounced is only true in that an r is not articulated, but it is not completely deleted either. For instance, Standard British English is more vocalic than Standard American because rather than inserting a consonantal r, speakers of British English would simply lengthen the amount of time that the vowel is produced. This has the effect that the ratio of time spent producing vowels is higher in British English than American in general, so the perceived r is certainly noticeable, and does has an effect on pronunciation that would not otherwise be present.