>> It leaves um, uh, er and elongated versions (ummmm, uhhhhh) alone.
replySomething's already gone wrong here. Uh and er refer to the same sound. Uh is the American spelling. Er is British; to them a following "r" like that is just a kind of vowel.
Regardless of American vs. British spellings, those are not the same sound. Some British people may pronounce them the same. Americans definitely pronounce them differently, though. For instance, the word “water” has a hard “r” sound at the end; Americans don’t pronounce it “watuh” like some British people do.
replyUm… no. Quite different vowel sounds.
reply(Also, in case it wasn’t clear: I was quoting from the start of the article in that sentence.)
They're quite different vowel sounds in the same sense that "back" and "back" use "quite different vowel sounds" when pronounced by American vs British speakers.
replyBut not in any other sense.
> in case it wasn’t clear: I was quoting from the start of the article in that sentence.
You don't seem to be quoting from the article at all, actually. You've combined two different sentences in a way that grossly misrepresents what the article says. But that's not really relevant to the point here.