It’s the habit, widespread even in this country, of writing “er” to suggest the hesitation in speech that we actually pronounced “eh”. “I can accept it from the pen of an English, Welsh, or ANZ person, since they would pronounce “er” as “ehh,” he says. “But an Irish person pronounces ‘er’ as ‘err’ […] This is not the way anyone expresses hesitation here”. I suspect I have myself perpetrated this outrage on occasion, so used am I to seeing it in print elsewhere. Rhotic speech is such a unifying factor in modern Ireland, north and south, it’s a wonder the DUP haven’t come out against it yet.

Source: The Irish Times February 05, 2021 18:56 UTC