World

Um, most English speakers in England also do not really pronounce the "R" in car, hair, garment, careless, etc. etc. etc.

Here is Wikipedia on rhotic and non-rhotic accents :
> Areas with non-rhotic accents include Australia, most of the Caribbean, most of England
> Most speakers of most of North American English are rhotic, as are speakers from Barbados, Scotland and most of Ireland.

Yes. This is all about rhoticism.

The "r" after a vowel quite often simply modifies the vowel sound in the non-rhotic areas.

The "r" after a vowel quite often simply modifies the vowel sound in the non-rhotic areas.

Well, that explains something I never understood before. Although I enjoyed reading the books of a particular writer (I don't remember if she was English or Australian), some of her characters would say "gel" for "girl."

The first time I saw the word I read it as if it were a homonym for "jell," but then I realized from the context that the word actually began with a hard g.

I don't know the correct terminology, but I would say that English speakers in England do not roll the r in world but they definitely pronounce it. An English person says world in a very different way to wold.

I would say that English speakers in England do not roll the r in world but they definitely pronounce it.

Not if they're using RP they don't. Pronunciation of 'r' in this context is a regionalism/non-standard etc. This vowel sound (the same vowel in world, bird, fur in British English/RP) is always followed by the letter 'r' when spelt.

An English person says world in a very different way to wold.

But that's because world+ and +wold do not have the same vowel sound.

The classic way to tell if your accent is rhotic or non-rhotic is whether or not you pronounce farther+ and +father the same.

The classic way to tell if your accent is rhotic or non-rhotic is whether or not you pronounce farther and father the same.

I can see it would work for most people. But there are some non-rhotic N English accents where they can pronounce these words differently, for example pronouncing father as fai(r)ther.

There are rhotic local accents in many parts of southern England, from Cornwall to Norfolk. The generic "Farmer Giles" accent as used in low comedy is rhotic, representing this fact. In fact you can get into rhotic-local-accent-land on the London Underground, though you'd have to be lucky actually to hear it. I used to live in Chesham (the remotest station on the LU) and my next door neighbour (now dead) had the nearly extinct local Buckinghamshire accent, which is rhotic. I've only heard it once or twice since.

"gel" refers to an upper-class way of saying "gal" for girl

English English doesn't aspirate much either.
In Scotland you are usually in no doubt as to whether someone is saying "whales" or "Wales", "what" or "watt" or indeed "weather" or "whether", except with the more slovenly speakers.

"gel" refers to an upper-class way of saying "gal" for girl

And interestingly, some working-class London speech uses a similar pronunciation for 'girl', except the final 'l' is realised as something close to 'w'. Similarly, 'world' becomes closer to 'weld', but with the 'l' pronounced like 'w'.