# Pronunciation Question - Warshington **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734 "2016-08-23T13:50:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SanDiegoTim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@SanDiegoTim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanDiegoTim)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/1 "2016-08-23T13:50:37Z")
What’s the deal with the “r” added in certain words? “Warshington” and “warsh” come to mind. Does those who add the “r” come from a particular part of the country? Do they have a tendency to mispronounce other words? Any other commonalities? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/2 "2016-08-23T14:26:46Z")
That is definitely a Baltimore accent, although may extend south along the mid-Atlantic. Where are you hearing this? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/3 "2016-08-23T14:34:59Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > That is definitely a Baltimore accent, although may extend south along the mid-Atlantic. Where are you hearing this? I actually place this accent more with the Midwest: Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, in particular (though not necessarily all parts of those states.) You’ll hear it in parts of Southern Illinois, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/4 "2016-08-23T14:35:17Z")
And the Northeast Atlantic as well. Remember JFK’s easily mocked pronunciation of “Cuber” and “Chiner”? ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/5 "2016-08-23T14:35:56Z")
Also rural NE Pennsylvania – an actual statement I remember hearing from my grandfather: “I went t’ th’ fordin’ place down the crik to warsh the Chivy and this ol’ bear come arunning out th’ woods.” ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/6 "2016-08-23T14:37:49Z")
My native dialect (mid Ohio) pronounces “Washington” as if it were spelled “Woishington”. Because we also pronounce “wash” as “woish”. There’s also “squoish” instead of “squash” (the vegetable, not the flattening). I can’t think of any other words with a similar deviation from typical English. IPA: /wɔɪʃintən/, /wɔɪʃ/, and /skwɔɪʃ/. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/7 "2016-08-23T14:40:44Z")
Anyhow, the name of the phenomenon is “intrustive r” or “linking r,” depending on how it’s being used. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/8 "2016-08-23T14:49:04Z")
Central Indiana and southern Illinois for sure! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/9 "2016-08-23T14:51:07Z")
My maternal grandparents lived in Ohio (the Columbus area) but were from West Virginia. They pronounced it “Warshington” (which I heard often since I’m from Washington State). ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/10 "2016-08-23T14:51:28Z")
My South Dakota relatives say “warsh.” I’ve also heard some rural folks say “oral” for “oil.” I believe the linking r is mostly NE Atlantic. But adding an r in the middle of a word is mostly a rural (and/or Midwest) thing. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/11 "2016-08-23T15:03:01Z")
It’s indeed an “intrusive R”, although it’s a different phenomenon that the normal intrusive R that appears in non-rhotic dialects and produces things like “I sawr a film today, oh boy.” Unlike that intrusive R, the “warsh” pronunciation appears in rhotic dialects, where extra R’s would not be expected to appear. Here’s an essay on the topic, where the author says that it’s a characteristic of the American midland accent (“Washington DC, Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, West Virginia; parts of Virginia; southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; most of Missouri; and Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, much of Kansas and west Texas.”) [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62786-2004Oct25.html](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62786-2004Oct25.html) –Mark ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/12 "2016-08-23T15:56:54Z")
PA: I associate it with coal country. I had a teacher who did that, and he was from someplace like Scranton - in the NE as has been mentioned. I grew up in the NW corner, and people didn’t generally do that. We just dropped “to be” sometimes - the car “needs washed” it doesn’t “need to be warshed”. ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/13 "2016-08-23T16:55:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Anyhow, the name of the phenomenon is “intrustive r” or “linking r,” depending on how it’s being used. So in Chicago do they have “intrusive **t** ” ? ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/14 "2016-08-23T17:21:05Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > And the Northeast Atlantic as well. Remember JFK’s easily mocked pronunciation of “Cuber” and “Chiner”? That is a Massachusetts thing and occurs only at the end of the words (to make up for the R’s that they drop ;)). ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/15 "2016-08-23T18:00:11Z")
The Beatles version of “Till there was you” has Paul McCartney pronouncing the word “saw” as if it were “sar”. Makes me laugh every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/16 "2016-08-23T18:12:32Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > So in Chicago do they have “intrusive **t** ” ? Do we stick “t’s” where there aren’t any? We sometimes change “ths” to "t"s or "d"s, but that’s not the same thing (andthat is not exclusive to Chicago, but perhaps most associated with it.) ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/17 "2016-08-23T18:37:00Z")
I have to concentrate not to put the R in. As a kid I wondered why it sounding when it wasn’t there, as everyone I know said it that way. Catskill Mountains. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/18 "2016-08-23T19:15:48Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > So in Chicago do they have “intrusive **t** ” ? I got it. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/19 "2016-08-23T19:44:46Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I got it. 🆒 Ok, then help, please. Is it a pun of some sort? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734/20 "2016-08-23T19:59:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Ok, then help, please. Is it a pun of some sort? I believe it is a disparaging slur on Chicago along the lines of Washington -\> Warshington : Chicago -\> \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciation-question-warshington/763734.md?page=2)