Hi, Aayko
It is not made with the tongue-ti at all,
but with the uvula -- a small con-shaped organ which hangs from the soft palate.
The uvula can be made to vibrate and produce a trill against the back of the
tongue. This [R] sound (the IPA symbol is a small cap R) is heard in some
substandard varieties of French (Edith Piaf often used it) and is a common
idiosyncratic replacement for a trilled tongue-tip [r] in those languages that
have the latter (it happens to be my own pronunciation of Polish /r/!). I think
it can be heard for <rr> in Brazilian Portuguese. If the uvula touches the
back of the tongue just once, the trill is reduced to a uvular tap.
If there is no vibration at all, but the
back of the tongue approaches the uvula, we can get a uvular voiced fricative or
approximant (the latter if there is no sound of friction). Both are symbolised
in the IPA with an upside-down small cap R; here let's use [R/] for easier
reference (let's say that / = "upside-down"). This sound is what the British
call the "Northumbrian burr" (in NE England) or "Berwick burr" (in Scotland). A
uvular/velar voiced approximant is also the prestigious French variety ("r
grasseyé") and a common German realisation of /r/.
The alveolar trill [r] (= Spanish medial
<-rr-> or word-initial <r->, Polish, Russian, Italian etc.
<r>) is pronounced with the tongue-tip against the alveolar ridge. Its
tapped equivalent [4] (a pastoral-shaped symbol in IPA) is what American English
has in <butter> or <waiting>. A very similar sound may occur in
somewhat old-fashioned British English in <very> or <merry> (for
intervocalic /r/); it's also common in mainstream RP after dental fricatives
(<three>, <throw>). In Spanish it's used in <pero> (versus the
trilled [r] in <perro>).
The alveolar or postalveolar approximant
[/r] is the most common English realisation of /r/.
There are more rhotic sounds than described
above, but I hope I've answered your query. If you can read UTF-8 (Unicode)
encoded symbols and have the Lucida Sans Unicode font, here are the IPA
symbols:
uvular trill [ʀ]
uvular fricative/approximant
[ʁ]
alveolar trill
[r]
alveolar tap
[ɾ]
(post)alveolar
approximant [ɹ]
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 4:07 PM
Subject: [phoNet] uvular trill
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?
Thanks!
Aayko
Eyma
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