Questions tagged [rhotics]

For questions about r-like sounds.

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2 votes
1 answer
94 views

Does the lack of tonsils make pronouncing french sounds harder?

I've had my tonsils removed a long time ago. I'm facing difficulty in pronouncing some sounds that start in throat like the french R. Does the lack of tonsils make it impossible for me produce the ...
12 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why isn't the American r considered a vowel?

As a native American English speaker from the Northwest, whenever I isolate the r in words like "right" or "rope" it's always /ɚ/, the same as the r in words like "first" ...
0 votes
1 answer
57 views

Child language acquisition as an explanation for American rounding of the /r/ sound

The English phoneme typically represented by the letter ⟨r⟩ represents a confusing and complicated mess of allophonic realizations, some of which are highly disparate and some of which vary only ...
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1 vote
1 answer
114 views

Pronunciation of English R

I'm a native speaker and I notice I pronounce R as [ɹʋ] non finally, a spontaneous ɹ and ʋ. At the end of words though I use the regular ɹ. Is this normal and does anyone else do this?
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2 votes
1 answer
366 views

What's the difference between a single-contact alveolar trill and alveolar flap/tap

is there any difference between the two? is it even possible to produce an alveolar trill with a single vibration of the tongue?
3 votes
0 answers
235 views

the sound of "erre moscia" in Italian

In Italian we have the alveolar trill as a phoneme, but not all native speakers (me, for example) can do it: some people have what we call an "Erre Moscia" meaning we can't properly do the ...
  • 309
4 votes
2 answers
173 views

Credible sources for Rho-Rotation?

A teacher of mine recently mentioned a phenomenon in linguistics called "rho-rotation". Across eons and languages if a r/rho sound was next to a vowel it tended to switch postitions and &...
1 vote
2 answers
128 views

How does r-coloring impact phonological analysis?

Edit: I realized I asked this very confusingly. I think what I really should have said was, are there any phonemic implications to r-coloring? Or thinking about it slightly differently, is there a ...
  • 115
0 votes
0 answers
51 views

Native Pronunciation of -rr- in the place name Wirral as voiced alveolar stop -d-

I was surprised to hear the Native Pronunciation of -rr- in the place name Wirral as voiced alveolar stop/tap -d- in this video as spoken by a native centenarian at the time point 0:47: Life Lessons ...
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9 votes
6 answers
2k views

Do any languages contrast [r] and [r:]?

I've heard of languages that contrast [r] and [ɾ] but I am unable to find any language that contrast a normal trill and a long trill. I searched far and near but to no avail. So is there any language ...
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12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Any languages that consider the alveolar and uvular trill distinct consonant phonemes?

I am intrigued by the difference between alveolar and uvular trills (and related phones) within and across languages, e.g., per this map of European /r/ usage (taken from this comment), which seems to ...
17 votes
2 answers
5k views

When and where did the guttural 'r' originate?

I have often wondered why French is (almost) unique in the Romance languages in using the guttural 'r' – in particular, the uvular fricative. Apart from Piedmontese / Piedmontese Italian (and even ...
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10 votes
2 answers
730 views

Why do phonemes such as /r/ and /ɾ/ evolve into uvular sounds like /ʀ/?

Forgive me if this seems vague, but this is mainly looking at the Germanic languages. Proto-Germanic probably used an alveolar of some sort, most likely a trill. In terms of Modern Germanic ...
9 votes
1 answer
889 views

Does the French R-sound come from Germanic influence?

Unless I'm mistaken, it is the same sound as the R in German, Yiddish, Danish,and Swedish.
4 votes
1 answer
227 views

How strong was the r/l distinction in Proto-Afro-Asiatic?

The East Asian languages do not distinguish r and l. The PIE had r/l alternation in suffixes: -tlom/-trom, -dhlom/-dhrom, -ter/-tel, -ros/-los. What can be said in this context about Afro-Asiatic ...
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4 votes
3 answers
555 views

Other than Scottish rolled "r" and North American rhotacised vowels, are there any differences across "r" sounds in English dialects?

I'm wondering about subtle differences in /r/ sounds across varieties of English. By subtle I mean I want to ignore the obvious large differences such as the trilled "r" in Scottish English and the ...
  • 14.4k
5 votes
1 answer
260 views

What were allophone rules for [r] in Old English and Middle English?

I gather that [r] (trill) was realized as [ɹ] in different dialects of Old English and Middle English, but when [r] was used, was it an allophone? In other words, did [r] vary predictably with [ɹ] (...
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