Plan B Forum

Posted: **Wed Dec 04, 2019 11:07 am**

The Cornish accent made famous by TV drama Poldark is dying out as wealthy newcomers move to the county, an expert has warned.

The distinctive accent, which sees the 'r' sound after a vowel extended as in 'car', is said to be the basis for how Americans speak after the Pilgrim Fathers, who helped to found the US, set off from the West Country.

Dr Lucy Ellis, a linguistics expert said that the rhotic 'r' is slowly dying out as Cornwall changes with the generations and social migration.

More and more people have moved into Cornwall over the years meaning characteristics like the rhotic 'r' which make the Cornish accent have been diluted.

Dr Ellis, an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter's College of Humanities, said: 'Rhoticity is the critical factor of the Cornish accent.

'It's also a critical part of American-English and Caribbean English.'

'Not necessarily but there is a theory that the Pilgrim Fathers may have started the American accent.

'They would have had a strong rhotic accent.'

She added the rolling rhotic 'r' is disappearing from some parts of Cornwall.

Posted: **Wed Dec 04, 2019 1:03 pm**

I do like the way Demelza rolls her r's.

Having said that, was the original Poldark (Robin Ellis, Angharad Rees as Ross and Demelza) a hit in the US? 1970s, IIRC. To us 20-something chaps then, Angharad was the definitive Demelza. Certainly Eleanor Tomlinson is fetching, but she lacks the sheer sexiness of Ms Rees. For those of you who have seen only the recent Poldark, the guy who plays the judge in one of the early episodes (and reappears occasionally) is Robin Ellis - the original Ross. As today with Aidan Turner, he was very much a sex symbol so my then GF and I could watch the series with, let's face it, slightly different viewpoints but in companionable harmony.

I've read all the books - they cover maybe 40 years or so. I have to say I was disappointed by the descent into soap opera after the first three or four years of the recent series.

Edited to correct a typo.

Posted: **Wed Dec 04, 2019 2:22 pm**

And yet, corny jokes will survive. My prediction.

Plan B Forum

Roll your rhotic 'r''s

Roll your rhotic 'r''s

Re: Roll your rhotic 'r''s

Re: Roll your rhotic 'r''s