Re: uvular R

As some may remember, I once suggested a causal link between heavy
metal poisoning and the Spanish development s^, z^ > x. I first got
this idea when I read an article the title and author of which
unfortunately I have forgotten, about the spread of uvular r's in
Europe. The point that caught my attention was this: in language
communities with apical r, there are always a few individuals who use
uvular r,never the other way round. This is considered (and might
actually be) a speech defect. One of the first symptoms of brain
damage (hence of heavy metal poisoning) is paraestethia (tinglig,
sleeping) (and subsequent (partial) loss of control, cf Robert
Schumann giving up his pianist career) of finger tips and the tip of
the tongue. This might explain the spread of uvular (and the rest is
imitation).

Now of course I have a massive problem of explaining the Spanish
apical r, but as usual I can come up with a patch. Suppose the uvular
r's started in Spain, spread to France (the generally accepted
explanation is that uvular r's came from the French "prétieuses" in
the ancien régime), and then after the French occupied Spain, uvular
r's were identified with the French, hence purged.

Hm?

Torsten