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Why don't we voice the first R in "surprise"?
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this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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It's the concept that the mouth position to make an R is kind of the midway point between the S and the P, so if you're speaking quickly, the S and P just blend together. To really enunciate the R, you kind of have to actively pause for a moment between the S and P, which is a bit awkward for some people. I stumbled into a series of videos about language quirks recently that happened to cover this; kind of coincidental to see it here right afterwards.
Reminds me of The Rural Juror:
Barbara Walters: [on The View] Let's get personal. Your father Werner was a burger server in suburban Santa Barbara.
Jenna Maroney: Yes, that's right.
Barbara Walters: When he spurned your mother Verna for a curly-haired surfer named Roberta. Did that hurt her?
Jenna Maroney: It was hard on all of us, yes.
Barbara Walters: Flurg murg glurg flurg murg murg murg tennis murg murg. Was a murg murg flurg?
Jenna Maroney: I'll always be his little girl. [cries]
Barbara Walters: [puts her hand on Jenna's shoulder] Glurg.
And the sequel, Urban Furor
I thought it was "Urban Fervor," but to be fair, it was really hard to understand a lot of words in that episode and I could have misheard. Regardless, those two are easily the best fictional film adaptations of a Kevin Grisham novel.
You're probably right