Originally Posted by
Rich
You hear a lot of added "r's" where I live outside of NYC. The one that irks me the most is "idear".
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but adding an "r" sound between one word that ends with a vowel and a subsequent word that starts with a vowel is actually proper English and has a long history. It came to us from Britain.
So, for example, if someone is saying "I have no idea about that" it is not improper to insert the "r" sound in between "idea" and "about." It is not necessarily considered "standard American English," but it is not improper.
What IS wrong is using the "r" sound when there isn't another word that follows. For example, "I have no idear," is incorrect. The "r" was only ever supposed to be used in a sentence in which a word ending with a vowel was followed immediately by another word beginning with a vowel.
I agree with you that, in general, even when used properly, it falls on most American ears as grating, wrong, and annoying. But the truth is that it is only two of those three things.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust