why do some English speakers end their words by adding “a” or “o” like in the song “whiskey In The Jar-o” or when some one yells “shut up-a”?

Question

As a non native English speaker, I find it so difficult to grasp.

In: 0

Answer 1

Singers do it because it’s much easier to hang on a vowel sound when singing than a consonant. For a hard-stop sound like the letter “p” it’s *impossible* to carry a note on so a singer must improvise.

When someone says “shut uppa you face!” they’re making fun of the way native Italian speakers sometimes mangle English. The US had a huge wave of Italian immigrants around the turn of the last century and so everyone is familiar with Italian accents.