Northumbrian burr

[1] According to Påhlsson (1972),[2] the Burr is typically pronounced as a voiced uvular fricative, often with accompanying lip-rounding ([ʁ(ʷ)]).

Approximant [ʁ̞], voiceless fricative [χ], tapped [ɢ̆] and trilled [ʀ] uvular pronunciations occur occasionally.

The data for Northumberland and northern Durham in the Survey of English Dialects (gathered in the 1950s) suggest that in addition to full pronunciation in syllable onset, uvular /r/ in these dialects was usually maintained in syllable coda position, typically as the uvularization of the preceding vowel.

Heslop (1892)[6] refers to the suggestion by James Murray that the Burr originated in the speech of Harry Hotspur, which Shakespeare describes as peculiar in some way: Stuck upon him as the sun In the grey vault of heaven: and by his light, Did all the chivalry of England move To do brave acts; he was indeed the glass Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves, He had no legs, that practis’d not his gait: And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, Became the accents of the valiant; For those that could speak low, and tardily, Would turn their own affection to abuse, To seem like him: so that, in speech, and gait, In diet, in affections of delight, In military rules, humours of blood, He was the mark and glass, copy and book, That fashioned others.

The first definite reference to distinctive pronunciation of R in Northeastern England was made by Hugh Jones in 1724,[8] slightly predating the more well known description of it by Daniel Defoe, who wrote, in his A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain,[9] that: I must not quit Northumberland without taking notice, that the Natives of this Country, of the antient original Race or Families, are distinguished by a Shibboleth upon their Tongues in pronouncing the letter R, which they cannot utter without a hollow Jarring in the Throat, by which they are as plainly known, as a Foreigner is in pronouncing the Th: this they call the Northumberland R, or Wharle; and the Natives value themselves upon that Imperfection, because, forsooth, it shews the Antiquity of their Blood.Around the turn of the 20th century, the Burr was recorded by Alexander J. Ellis[10] and by Joseph Wright.