...but people (around me, at least, in the DC area) do say “Er...” literally, sometimes. It appears to be pronounced that way when the speaker wants to emphasize the pause, as far as I can tell.
I hear “er”, literally (rhotically), quite infrequently and I always assumed that people said it that way because of seeing “er” in written English and not knowing that it was intended to be pronounced “uh”; similarly, I’ve heard “arg” spoken by people who thought “argh” from written English was pronounced that way.
In my previous commented I restrained myself from linking to Ant Phillips’s Um & Aargh but now you’ve given me sufficient excuse. (The chorus sounds to my American ears like “um and ah”.)
...but people (around me, at least, in the DC area) do say “Er...” literally, sometimes. It appears to be pronounced that way when the speaker wants to emphasize the pause, as far as I can tell.
I hear “er”, literally (rhotically), quite infrequently and I always assumed that people said it that way because of seeing “er” in written English and not knowing that it was intended to be pronounced “uh”; similarly, I’ve heard “arg” spoken by people who thought “argh” from written English was pronounced that way.
In my previous commented I restrained myself from linking to Ant Phillips’s Um & Aargh but now you’ve given me sufficient excuse. (The chorus sounds to my American ears like “um and ah”.)
Edit: Grumble grumble Markdown parser bug grumble grumble.
...but “argh” is pronounced that way… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOlKRMXvTiA :) Since the late 90s, at least.