ZingW

Who are Laura Norder and Lauren Forcement and when did it become acceptable to pronounce the letter 'W' as an 'R' when followed by a vowel.

John Davies, Kirkby in Cleveland, United Kingdom

• And there I was thinking "that looks like one of Mr Tooze's queries"! Anyway, my (non mushroom-fuelled) guess is that it's partly to do with (1) increased 'laziness of speech' (it's much more of an effort with the mouth to form the letter 'W' than to simply use an 'R' before a word that begins with a vowel), and also, more particularly (2)the 'Increasing AmericaniZation of Everything'.... Lots of US cops-and-lawyers films and TV shows will have been trotting out such phrases for some time, and as with many other linguistic and other US traits, the continual exposure to this sort of pronunciation, etc, will mean that it has gotten absorbed into everyday English - as to exactly when it became 'acceptable' (eg. as pronounced by news presenters etc)..... maybe in the last decade or so, in this instance?

  W Boddy, Cambridge, UK