From: Andrew Jarrette
Message: 36614
Date: 2005-03-03
At 2:46:46 PM on Wednesday, March 2, 2005, Andrew Jarrette
wrote:
> Yes, there are widely diverging pronunciations of /r/ in
> many languages, and of course I know about the tap or
> trill pronunciations of English /r/ in certain dialects.
Not to mention uvular rhotics in Northumberland (Ladefoged &
Maddieson, 236).
> But do those variations of /r/ in other languages include
> an alveolar/retroflex approximant, as it is most commonly
> pronounced overall in English (including North American)?
For North America itself I'm not entirely sure that the
alveolar or post-alveolar approximant *is* the most common:
a rather large number of N. Americans have the so-called
'bunched r'.
Ladefoged & Maddieson say that many Australian languages
have an apical post-alveolar approximant rhotic; an example
from Arrernte shows one occurring intervocalically. Edo
apparently has a voiced alveolar approximant contrasting
with two other alveolar rhotics.
> Those labiodental /r/'s among some speakers of English
> I think is regarded as either substandard or a speech
> impediment, I dare say.
So far as I can tell, it's quite widespread, appearing as
far north as Newcastle, and it appears to be quite normal
among some groups.
Brian
_____________________________By "bunched r" I am guessing you mean an /r/ articulated with the tip of the tongue pointed down, and the central mass of the tongue arched upwards towards the hard palate. This articulation has an acoustic effect very similar to the post-alveolar approximant, and you may be right that many or most North Americans use it, but how will that ever be determined for certain.
Yes it seems at least a few unfamiliar and limited-dispersal languages have /r/ phonemes similar to the most common English /r/, but what I really wonder is whether any other IE languages besides English have the typical English /r/. It is a characteristic of standard (or most common) English that sets it apart from all other IE languages, I think, like the preservation of /w/ (apart from Flemish and a dialect of Danish, reportedly).
I would classify the labiodental pronunciation of /r/ as a phenomenon similar to the pronunciation of /th/ (interdental fricatives) as /f/ and /v/, i.e. not to be emulated, and looked down upon. I know I am being rather supercilious, but I do believe that is how labiodental /r/ is regarded among modern English speakers.
Andrew Jarrette