r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Elegant-Mode9005 • Aug 27 '26

Ruined by Technology Got into a dumb 10 minute argument about whether the ACL and Achilles are the same thing or not. My idiot friend forgot to crop his screenshot before sending it to me...🤦

Post image
31.5k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

10

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

I've never heard of an accent where laughter is pronounced larfter. Where is that from?

5

u/ImpossibleDrink3420 Aug 27 '26

Australian isn't far off, the imaginary R isn't emphasised but you could be forgiven for thinking it was there. It's be more like larftah though.

Source: am Australian

7

u/andrew_calcs Aug 27 '26

Southern British/Cockney accents add Rs to words that shouldn't have them and omit it from words that should.

2

u/Ikhtionikos Aug 27 '26

It's called the intrusive R, but I don't think it's cockeny, much rather the posher accents, such as RP. Correct me if I'm wrong though

1

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

I live in London surrounded by Cockneys. I only hear something like 'lawf'. They drop their 'r' from most words. I've never heard it added.

3

u/LordHoughtenWeen Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26

Yeah, I don't know why they said Cockney, it's more of a Berkshire thing.

Source: am a Berk, very much pronounce the invisible R's. The first syllables in "larder" and "laughter" are identical for me.

1

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

Yeah, I think I know what they're trying to get at. The long /ɑː/ can easily transition into an 'r' sound at the end. I know one Londoner who says father and farther almost identically. But I think that's more because of the 'th' that becomes a 'v' sound in Cockney. Like 'fah'ver and fah'r'ver.

I think we'd need a linguist who might get what is going on here and explain it better.

2

u/andrew_calcs Aug 27 '26

Drawring. Lawr and order. The idear is to X. I sawr a film. Bananars and yogurt. Cat clawring at the door. Ice thawring

Etc

1

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

That's an intrusive 'r' though. That is inserted where there are vowel sounds that are bridged. Law and order gets it sure. But there is no space in laughter where it would be needed. Same with draw - ing. The 'r' goes into the space between. Banana and. All the examples you give are of the intrusive 'r'.

I'm not saying that there is no instance where you might be right. But not in these cases here, as they don't fit with laughter where there's no need to bridge a gap in vowels.

2

u/andrew_calcs Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap%E2%80%93bath_split

The lengthened a is phonetically identical to the non-rhotic r. Which itself is notably different from a snappy vowel transition

1

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

The non-rhotic r is not pronounced except when followed by a vowel. Your example of is of an 'r' being pronounced, as in 'larfter'. But there is no vowel sound that follows the long /ɑː/; it's an 'f'.

Sorry but I don't see that trap / bath split having any relevance in this case at all.

1

u/andrew_calcs Aug 27 '26

Is the “a” in laughter pronounced like “cat” or “cart”?

It’s cart. The lengthened a with the non-rhotic r. 

1

u/Ichorous_Allsorts Aug 27 '26

That's nonsense. The 'a' in cat is /æ/ and a front vowel, while the 'a' in cart or father is /ɑ/, and a back vowel. There is no non-rhotic 'r' in that /ɑ/. There just isn't. You repeating it doesn't make it true. Your choice of cart as an example seems to show you don't realise that the 'r' sound is coming for the actual letter 'r' in cart.

Just point me to any independent source that supports your claim that /ɑ/ has a non-rhotic 'r', rather than just doubling down and repeating yourself. Just because you believe you're in the right isn't evidence you are.

1

u/andrew_calcs Aug 27 '26

I can’t tell if you’re deliberately missing the point or not so I’m just going to leave it here and if this isn’t enough i’m done. 

A non-rhotic r means the r is omitted. “Larfter” with a specified non-rhotic r conveys that the a in laughter is pronounced with the long a like cart instead of the short a like cat. 

It isn’t indicative of an actual voiced “r” sound with a midwestern American accent, that’s clearly silly. But it is indeed an accurate phonetic spelling for how to pronounce the word with a non-rhotic dialect. 

→ More replies (0)

1

u/pb49er Aug 27 '26

Their imagination.

4

u/PurbulentTriest Aug 27 '26

Well no, in the UK it's very normal, especially if you have a slightly posh accent as I once had due to moving around so much.

1

u/MAJLobster Aug 27 '26

lmao no my accent is nowhere close to a Brit's yet everyone I know and I pronounce "laughter" the same way you would pronounce the "augh" in "draught"

1

u/HugoEmbossed Aug 27 '26

Australia.