Linking R and
intrusive R are
sandhi or
linking phenomena involving the appearance of the
rhotic consonant (which normally corresponds to the letter ) between two consecutive morphemes where it would not normally be pronounced. These phenomena occur in many
non-rhotic varieties of English, such as those in most of England and Wales, part of the United States, and all of the Anglophone societies of the southern hemisphere, with the exception of South Africa. These phenomena first appeared in English sometime after the year 1700.