Consonants R

/r/, when it is articulated in the South, is articulated much as in other North American Englishes. The ordinary form is the “bunched-tongue r,” produced with constrictions by the tongue root (in the pharynx), the tongue dorsum (to the velum or palate), and – in syllable onsets – the lips as well. The currency of the competing variant, the “retroflex r” (produced with the pharyngeal constriction and with retroflection of the tongue tip) is difficult to assess but seems far less common. Production of the bunched-tongue r often results in latent retroflection. One other variant, the tap  , may have occurred in some older Southern speech after [θ], as in three, but the evidence is unclear.

Postvocalic /r/ is the most heavily studied consonantal variable in Southern English, and it shows rich contextual, geographical, socioeconomic, diachronic, ethnic, and stylistic conditioning. It also shows continuous gradation from fully rhotic to fully non-rhotic variants. In terms of phonetic context, non-rhoticity is most frequent in unstressed syllables. Non-rhoticity may occur variably in this context in areas such as the Pamlico Sound region and Appalachia that are otherwise rhotic, and, as rhoticity has increased recently, unstressed syllables are often the last context to become rhotic. The next most frequent environment for non-rhoticity is in syllable codas, whether word-finally (four, here) or pre-consonantally (hard, fourth). Linking r, as in here is , has historically been absent for a large number of Southerners, though some speakers showed it, often variably. Intrusive linking r in other hiatus positions, as in saw-r it, is virtually unknown in the South, in part because intrusive l may occur in such contexts. Rhoticity tends to be more frequent after front vowels (e.g., here, there) than after back vowels (four, hard). Stressed, syllabic r, the NURSE class, is more likely to be rhotic than r in syllable codas. Some older Southerners are also variably non-rhotic in intra-word intervocalic contexts, as in carry [k^hæi] . Deletion of r occurs as well for some speakers between [θ] and a rounded vowel in throw and through and after a consonant in some unstressed syllables, e.g., the initial syllable of professor.

Deletion of r in certain words before coronal consonants, as in the widespread forms bust, cuss, and gal for burst, curse, and girl, respectively, and ass and bass (fish) for earlier arse and barse, as well as dialectal forms such as futher, catridge, and passel for further, cartridge, and parcel, is not properly considered to be non-rhoticity, since it arose earlier from assimilation. Nor is the dissimilation that results in deletion of the first r in words such as surprise, governor, temperature, veterinarian, and caterpillar properly considered non-rhoticity. Both processes are common in the South, though forms such as passel are recessive.

Geographically, non-rhoticity is strongly correlated with former plantation areas. Non-rhoticity formerly predominated in Tidewater and Piedmont Virginia and adjacent parts of southwestern Maryland and northern North Carolina; in a band stretching from South Carolina across the Georgia Piedmont through central Alabama and central Mississippi; throughout the Mississippi River lowlands as far north as Kentucky, extending to include the western two thirds of Kentucky and western and north-central Tennessee, and thence west to include Gulf coastal plain sections of Texas; and in some coastal communities in Georgia and the Gulf states. Much of North Carolina and parts of central and even western Texas showed mixed patterns. The principal rhotic sections were the Delmarva Peninsula; the Pamlico Sound region of North Carolina; the southern Appalachians, extending to northern Alabama; the Ozarks, Oklahoma, and northern Texas; and the Piney Woods region of the southern parts of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, northern Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas. None of these areas was monolithic, however, and the Piney Woods region, especially, showed mixture.

The socioeconomic and diachronic aspects of rhoticity in the South are intertwined. Various studies, notably McDavid (1948), Levine and Crockett (1966), Harris (1969), and Feagin (1990), have suggested that rhoticity has undergone a shift in prestige. Before World War II, non-rhoticity was prestigious, appearing most frequently among higher social levels and spreading (except, perhaps, in NURSE words). Afterward, rhoticity became prestigious and non-rhoticity became most common among lower social levels. Females have forged ahead of males in this change. Today, even in areas that were once strongholds of non-rhoticity, young white Southerners are rhotic, especially females. Predictably, rhoticity increases with stylistic formality. It should be noted that the dramatic increase in rhoticity applies only to white Southerners; African Americans remain largely non-rhotic except in the NURSE class, and, as discussed previously, social polarization of the two ethnicities magnified during the civil rights movement may be related to the divergence in rhoticity.