Another chapter in the story of /r/: ‘Labiodental’ variants in British English

In this article we trace the history of [bnu;]‐like variants of British English /r/. Although [bnu;] has generally been dismissed as an infantilism, or indicative of affected or disordered speech, it seems to have become established as an accent feature of non‐standard south‐eastern accents. We present tentative evidence to suggest this may be related to the presence of similar variants in the London East End Jewish community. After summarising previous discussions of [bnu;], we concentrate on a sociophonetic study of /r/ variants used by speakers from Derby and Newcastle. [bnu;] is found in both cities, with a higher incidence in Derby. Acoustic evidence suggests that the spreading variants are qualitatively different from [?]. We conclude that the spread of [bnu;] is part of a general and widespread process of accent levelling.