By Shawna Collier
The pronunciation of this letter has just one syllable
(NASHVILLE) Just in time for summer, the National Association of Elementary School Teachers issued a plea this morning to parents of African-American pupils that they teach their children that the letter ‘R’ has only one syllable.
“For years we’ve been faced with a smattering of African-American children who pronounce ‘R’ like ‘are-uh,’” Connie Brown, NAEST president told The Peoples News. “This has got to stop.”
Almost every black person can remember a classmate who, when reciting the alphabet, would stumble over ‘R,’ as in “…ell, em, en, oh, pee, cue, are-uh, ess, tee…” but carry on as if nothing was amiss.
Since the culprit was usually a big kid, no one alerted him to his error by either correction or ridicule.
The Peoples News showed a chart of the alphabet to 100 people in downtown Nashville this morning and asked them to pronounce the letters. Seventeen said ‘r-uh.’
“What’s wrong with what I said?” wondered one of them, Amos Nandy, a Nashville resident who said he is 6’5” and weighs 278 pounds. The Peoples News reporter did not tell him.
No one is certain when ‘R,’ commonly pronounced ‘are,’ took on the extra ‘uh’—or why.
Fisk University linguistics professor Archie Drell said some trace the multi-syllabic pronunciation to African tribes whose dialects don’t include the letter R.
“But of course that’s just crazy talk,” Drell said. “There’s no connection to Africa or slavery or anything else other than people too lazy to learn the correct pronunciation.”
The NAEST also reiterated for the 17th straight year that ‘ask’ is not pronounced ‘ax’ and that while it reluctantly accepts ‘fixin’ to’ as an alternate for ‘going to,’ the non-word ‘fintin’ is not.
Note: This article is satire, brought to you by the creative minds at The Peoples News. It’s not real, but we hope it made you think.
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A big kid, eh? That explains it.
LMAO (whoa, am I first?). My mother is an elementary school teacher. She’ll get a kick out of this…
I find it funny that a person can complete grades 1-12 and still come out unable to speak english. Either there is a problem with the school or there is a serious problem with the child. But maybe its a serious problem with the parent who can’t speak english themselves. Either way in the end the child ends up being the looser.
What about “Uh-Ruh?,” as in “Uh-Ruh, is that yo dog?”
Come to think of it, what about “Yo?,” as in “Uh-Ruh, is that yo dog?”
Come to think of it, what about “Yo?,” as in “Yo! Uh-Ruh, is that yo dog?”
Come to think of it, I need to go lie down.
LOL, my family is full of educators’ and they can tell many tales on murdering the kings’ english….there’s another R pronounciation… arr-rah, probably shouldn’t laff scareeeeem
Both my parents who are Librarians loved this article when I showed it to them.
I am sure my Godfather who was a Grammarian and English Teacher would be “rolling” in his grave if he saw this.
Okay, that was funny! But Gregory, who, or what, are the kids “looser” than? Or do you mean “loser”? Please don’t criticize the english others speak just yet.
My first memorable experience with this pronunciation came in high school when our black teacher, in preparing us for a test, told the class to be familiar with Roosevelts 4 R’s (are-uhs) for reconstruction following WW2. Hastily taking notes, I asked him to spell are-uhs. His response: You trying to be funny boy! The class got a laugh-me chastised.
lol.
I corrected my child every time he mispronounced ‘R’. Now I am working on ‘el-im-in-o-pee’ instead of L M N O P.
I had a Sunday School Teacher that admonished children not to get “ef-fies” on their report cards…I was thinking, “don’t you mean Fs?” (I didn’t dare say it though…you didn’t correct adults in the 80s.)
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Oh the perils of growing up in the South! My one complaint about this blog is that the writers don’t update it regularly enough. I love this blog, keep the truth coming!
Help!!! I can’t get offline. I’ve been fixinta go to bed since 9p.m. last night.. it’s now 9:38 a.m. I can’t stop reading this stuff. I’m sure my grandkids are wondering why is granny in her room laughing so hard.
you should ax someone from Missour-ah their opinion about this blog.
that’s the best way for kids to learn how to say it that’s the way my mother taught me when I wasn’t able to say it roght.