Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  I once had a neighbour who (although he was quite convinced   
    AH>  he'd lost his Scottish accent) pronounced my name as if I   
    AH>  spelled it "Air-r-rdith".  OTOH folks from Someplace Else   
    AH>  may often appear to minimize an "r" or ignore it completely.   
      
    AK>  What's who I was taught in school. "Car" - sounds like [ka:]   
          |that's how, that's what   
      
      
              Yes, awhile ago I mentioned a pun which I remembered from a British   
   magazine... khakis = car keys.  It works in UK & ex-Brit Canadian English.  It   
   doesn't work in situations where "khaki" rhymes with "tacky", however....  :-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  In the USSR we were taught British English.   
      
      
              No problem AFAIC.  Our daughter tends to soften /r/ because she has   
   difficulty getting her tongue around it.  Dallas & I are often asked where she   
   got "that lovely British accent".  As Canadians, we understand UK & US English   
   equally well... and we accept both.  But we also enjoy the freedom of deciding   
   what works for us on an individual basis.  Other Canadians may or may not make   
   different choices.  Either way, most of us will understand what you mean.  :-)   
      
      
      
    AH>  What puzzles me is how some ex-Brits I know...   
    AH>  especially Londoners... add /r/ to the end of   
    AH>  words where I don't see one,   
      
    AK>  For example?   
      
      
              As it happens Dallas & I were chatting with an ex-Londoner just the   
   other day.  Recognizing that somebody here might want examples, I made a point   
   of noticing how she inserted an /r/ at the end of certain words.  She told us,   
   e.g., that she "sawr" something ending in a vowel to which she also added /r/.   
   I'm not sure now what she saw because I didn't want to embarrass her by openly   
   recording her exact words & her pronunciation, but I can offer an example from   
   the days when my future parents-in-law adopted a dog they called "Cleater".  I   
   didn't realize, until I ran across a newspaper article involving a woman named   
   "Cleta", how the name was spelled because it is a rather unusual name....  :-)   
      
      
      
    AH>  Most people simply add a final /d/ in words like the   
    AH>  following:   
      
    AH>   cleaned, combed, fixed, forked, guessed, longed, managed,   
    AH>   muttered, pitied, played, wandered, wondered, yearned.   
      
    AK>  Ah, I see my word. :)   
      
      
              Uh-huh.  I'm not just another pretty face, y'know... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
    AH>  All of the examples I've been able to come up with so   
    AH>  far in which we routinely treat "- ed" as an added   
    AH>  syllable involve words ending in "t" or "d":   
      
    AH>   counted, courted, painted, mended, sounded, wounded.   
      
    AK>  I vaguely recollect that I was taught such a thing in   
    AK>  school, but I forgot it.   
      
      
              While you learned English as a foreign language native speakers are   
   often expected to understand this stuff intuitively.  For various reasons many   
   people may not have received such input during a time in their lives when they   
   were ready, willing, and able to appreciate it.  I love it when folks like you   
   question my own assumptions & send me scurrying to my reference books....  :-)   
      
      
      
    AH>   * blessed, leaned, learned, spelled   
      
    AH>  When these words are used as past participles, you may   
    AH>  occasionally see or hear "t" (esp. UK?) in place of the   
    AH>  "- ed".  Either way is correct in Canada.... :-)   
      
    AK>  I have never heard that "to bless" is a irregular verb:   
      
      
              I don't think of it as such... but I do know of situations in which   
   the difference between /d/ & /t/ may not be entirely clear to the listener.  I   
   see what we're dealing with here as alternative spelling & pronunciation.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)