this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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I've also heard giraffe pronounced "girarffe" by a Brit. (Or at least implied since it was rhymed with "scarf" in a Julie Donaldson book.) Maybe there's some rule regarding "R" sounds on the ends of certain vowel sounds.
Aha! You have discovered the non-rhotic accent. Most, but not all Brits (along with Aussies and some rural Americans) do not usually sound out r's unless they're followed by a vowel. In my northern England accent, giraffe and scarf have different a sounds, but also scarf has no audible r. I'd guess Julia Donaldson speaks more Southern or RP so giraffe would rhyme with scarf would rhyme with half.
Aww, you silly Brits.
My buddy (we're from Canada) went to Australia for some time. He was a smoker, and lived with a bunch of other smokers. In Canada, if you want to ask someone for a smoke, you say "Can I bum a smoke?". In Australia, it's "Can I get a fag?" In the spirit of international cooperation, the expression soon became: "Can I bum a fag?" Much maturity.