Dear all,
Having just subscribed, I hope this list allows ignorant questions..
In Ancient Egyptian, scholars have concluded that there were
two kinds of r:
[3] - an uvular trill sound, r or l; no full certainty, but let's stick with /R/
[r] - perhaps a flapped/tapped /r/
I have to describe them in a FAQ for a general public, meaning:
- with complete avoidance of linguistical/phonological terms
- very short (it's in a table)
- with same 'like this'-examples in footnotes at best
Would this suit or not:
[3] - trilled /R/, back in mouth; Scottish /R/
[r] - tapped /r/, via tongue tip, as in Spanish 'pero'
[and in footnote to table:]
- - The two /r/'s are hard to describe on paper, as they do not occure in official
English.
The tapped /r/, made by briefly once touching the front roof of the mouth with the tongue
tip,
appears in Spanish pero ("but"). Some English dialects have it (in e.g. 'very'), and it
sounds a bit
like a rapid /d/ in English 'ladder', or like the /tt/ in 'butter' in midwestern American
dialects.
The trilled /R/, made by trilling the tongue tip against the roof or the mouth, appears in
Spanish
'perro' ("dog"). It occures in "Parisian" French (in e.g. 'rue') and in northern Brittish
dialects.
No nonsense written here? My phonological literature is not specific enough
(like e.g. the Oxford Encyclopedia on Language)
Do you have other examples (from French, German, English) that would allow an
international audience to grasp how those r's sound?
What I also wandered about: a "burred r" ("gebrouwde r" in Dutch), what kind
of r is that? Uvular, but is it a tap or a trill? Does it occur in English?