[tied] Re: Franco-Provençal

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...>
wrote:

> --- On Thu, 2/19/09, Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...> wrote:

[...]

>> BTW, many linguists say that the commonest [r] in the U.S.A.
>> is not actually retroflex [r] but what they call "bunched /r/",
>> whose articulation I'm not really sure of but I think involves
>> contracting the tongue into an arch, pointing the tip downward,
>> and articulating the approximant somewhere close to the hard
>> palate. [...]

Yes.

> Your description of "bunched r" definitely seems to be on the
> mark as normal American r

Not for those of us who have the retroflex /r/!

I've not seen much in the way of statistical data, but it's clear
that both are common.

Brian