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I'm having trouble differentiating the uvular trill, uvular, and preüvular fricatives.

While I understand that the preüvular variant is more fronted, it sounds to me like many acclaimed uvular fricatives are actually raised, nonsonorant trills, [ʀ̝, ʀ̥˔]. That's at least what I've gathered from the speakers on Rosetta Stone German and the Articulatory IPA YouTube Channel (voiced, voiceless).

Is there any validity to my guess? Could someone please provide audio files of the three, so I could hear the difference? If the fricatives are audibly different, are the approximants?

I can make the voiced uvular trill, velar fricatives, and prevelar fricatives. It's only the uvular fricatives I'm having trouble distinguishing.

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  • What's your native language? In English the diaeresis isn't usually used in the hiatus. (*preüvular except for naïve). – tobiornottobi Jan 2 '19 at 17:43
  • I think I know what you mean. It is difficult to stop the uvula completely from vibrating during a uvular fricative. If there is mainly friction and no consistent vibration, someone might decide to use [ʁ ~ χ] instead. A real trill doesn't have as much friction as in your voiceless Youtube link and the recording definitely begins with a fricative. – tobiornottobi Jan 2 '19 at 17:47

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