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”.)
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.