hard r

• hard R, hard-r

hard r (plural hard r's)

1. (phonetics, phonology, informal) a rhotic sound which is emphatic or strongly enunciated; in English accents especially a postvocalic consonantal r, as distinguished from its absence in a nonrhotic accent or from an R-coloured vowel
   • 1999 March 7, David Mannix, “The Theater Season; Stage Speech”, in The New York Times‎, page sec. 2 p. 4:

     Rhineland Germans have a soft, back "r," while those in eastern and southern Germany use an alveodental "r," due (one supposes) to the respective influence of the French on the one hand and Slavs or Italians on the other. The "hard r" is said to carry better in an auditorium or on the radio, so performers from the Rhineland must learn to deliver those "theatrical r's."

   • 2001 October 8, Marilyn Berger, “Herblock, Cartoonist Who Humbled Mighty, Is Dead at 91”, in The New York Times‎:

     His broad "a's" and hard "r's" forever marked him as a son of the Midwest.

   • 2002, Kenneth Katzner, Kirk Miller, “Basque”, in The Languages of the World‎, 3rd edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page 58:

     There is both a soft r and a hard r, the latter usually spelled ŕ (ŕege – king).

   • 2010 April 8, David Pichaske, Song of the North Country: A Midwest Framework to the Songs of Bob Dylan‎, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 99:

     In Blood on the Tracks, Dylan has his r's mostly on half-articulation. Medial and terminal r's are appropriately turned off in the bluesy “Meet Me in the Morning,” but the songs of this album have more hard r's than we've heard in a long time, including some words where we might expect to find the “r” missing: “weather,” “horses,” “heart,” “boxcar door,” “apart,” “anymore."

   • 2022 January 28, Dave Itzkoff, “Watch the Throne: How Joel Coen Came to Make ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’”, in The New York Times‎, page AR16:

     ‘Make sure you hit the hard R’s.’ He was obsessed with R’s. I’m like, OK, arrrre you sure?

2. (US, in particular), the hard r at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered maximally racist; as distinct from the African-American Vernacular English pronunciation conventionally spelled nigga, whose final sound is sometimes called soft a
   • 2016 May 5, MItchell Joseph Sewell, Standpoint: Black Queer Southern Revelations‎, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Senior Theses. 87, page 45; Tips for a Successful Interracial Relationship:

     First and foremost / You are under no circumstances / Ever permitted / To say the n-word / I don't care if it's soft a or hard r

   • 2021, Dean of Students Office, “Fall 2021”, in Bias Advisory and Response Team Updates‎, Xavier University, archived from the original on 14 March 2023:

     While telling the story, Student B said the "N-word". Student A told Student B that using that language was not okay. Student B's response was "It's okay, I don't say it with the hard R."

   • 2022 January 7, John McWhorter, “Opinion: I Can’t Brook the Idea of Banning ‘Negro’”, in The New York Times‎:

     Opinions will continue to differ about the N-word — does pronunciation that ends in a soft “a” versus a hard “r” make a difference?