Random question for my British friends

[New England Eeyore]

This has been bothering me for months - I have a British customer who's last name is "Parker." Whenever he says his name, he pronounces it "Pahka" - dropping the r's. (The first few times he came in I had to ask him to repeat it twice to make sure I was getting it right - and it's not exactly an exotic name!) It's kind of like a Boston accent, except it's clearly British. I wondered is this guy just strange or is that a common thing to do? We are much maligned for our Boston accents here and I'd love to know if we come by it legitimately!

 

[Queenie]

I've never heard it pronounced like that before, I've only ever heard it with the r's but there are hundreds of different accents in the UK so I'm sure it's pronounced like that somewhere!

 

[Dimplenose]

Maybe he's Scottish, Northern Irish or from Liverpool - though I'm sure there are other regional accents that may pronounce it like that.

Libby

 

[marlynnp]

Are you sure he isn't from Rhode Island?

 

[party of 3]

he could be. that's how i say it!

 

[tracipierce]

Maybe he's Scottish, Northern Irish or from Liverpool - though I'm sure there are other regional accents that may pronounce it like that.

Libby

sounds like it could be cockney to me,, I'm pretty sure Londoners tend to drop their 'r's more than us from the north,, I live right in between liverpool and manchester and we don't tend to drop our 'r's, HTH?

 

[New England Eeyore]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like there are as many dialects in the UK as there are here! At any rate, he fits in well here!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Are you sure he's not an Aussie, DH said they tend to drop the "r"

 

[New England Eeyore]

No, definitely not Australian. I could always ask him where he's from, but he's not terribly friendly!

 

[aprilvaca04]

Are you sure he isn't from Rhode Island?

Or maybe from New York? We tend to lose our R's at the end depending on which part you come from!

 

[marlynnp]

I should probably clarify the Rhode Island thing - I've known 2 people from there and they both sounded somewhat British overall.

 

[granmaz]

I've never heard it pronounced like that before, I've only ever heard it with the r's but there are hundreds of different accents in the UK so I'm sure it's pronounced like that somewhere!

Well I think I might say it like that and I am from Yorkshire!! In fact I don't know how you can say it and sound the 'r'. I think it would probably sound like our parka when I say it.