# Your favorite rhotic consonant



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Rhotic consonant is basically a consonant that is written as "r".
Here are the different rhotics pronounced (in the same order as below and as in the poll): http://vocaroo.com/i/s17srptsqtEh

*(Post-)alveolar approximant:* as in English, can be retroflex approximant as well, which is also how r is often pronounced in Mandarin Chinese.

*Alveolar trill:* the typical "rolled" r pronounced with the tip of the tongue, the way r is pronounced in for example Italian, Russian, Finnish, Spanish and often Dutsch, also the preferred pronunciation in opera regardless of language. Can be heard in German as well (in the speeches of... you know who, for example) but is considered a bit old-fashioned or dialectical.

*Uvular trill:* Sounds similar to the alveolar trill, but the uvula in the back of the mouth vibrates instead of the tip of the tongue. Famously heard in Édith Piaf's performance of Non, je ne regrette rien. Can be sometimes heard in any language that has the so-called "guttural" r (German, French, Dutch) but is not as common as the next one.....

*(Voiced) uvular fricative:* Another "guttural r", pronounced with the back of the tongue raised like uvular trill, however the uvula does not vibrate. The most common pronunciation of r in German (when it is a consonant) and French.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Uvular trill: Sounds similar to the alveolar trill, but the uvula in the back of the mouth vibrates instead of the tip of the tongue. Famously heard in Édith Piaf's performance of Non, je ne regrette rien. Can be sometimes heard in any language that has the so-called "guttural" r (German, French, Dutch) but is not as common as the next one.....

Being from Holland....:lol:


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Definitely the fricative one.

What were the options again?


----------



## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

I voted for the first option.

I have never been able to do an alveolar trill. And the word 'uvula' makes me uncomfortable.


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Balthazar said:


> I voted for the first option.
> 
> I have never been able to do an alveolar trill. And the word 'uvula' makes me uncomfortable.


I had to go to speech therapy to learn alveolar trill as a child.


----------



## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Balthazar said:


> I voted for the first option.
> 
> I have never been able to do an alveolar trill. * And the word 'uvula' makes me uncomfortable*.


The _uvula dentata_ is just a psychoanalysts' myth.


----------



## Balthazar (Aug 30, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> I had to go to speech therapy to learn alveolar trill as a child.


That's why my forebears undertook the dangerous voyage to the New World.


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Thanks Taggart for fixing the poll.


----------



## Rhombic (Oct 28, 2013)

Alveolar trill OBVIOUSLY. I can't stand the uvular r, regardless of trill or flap. Ugh. Duh.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Alveolar trill sounds the best for flutter-tonguing, including on the flute. I use it all the time, not the uvular type.


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Is the soft "r" produced by a single stroke of the tip of the tongue against the hard palate, as heard between vowels in words such as the Italian "caro," classified as a form of the alveolar trill? It doesn't really trill the way the "r" in "bravo" does.

I'll call it the "tongue-tip flip." I like it.


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Ah yes, that would be alveolar tap/flap. Spanish might be even better example, as caro with a trill would be actually incorrect and an entirely different word, "carro". That is also how intervocalic, unstressed t/d is typically pronounced in American English. Also how the Japanese 'r' is pronounced most of the time.


----------



## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

Alveolar trill , like the Scottish Grrrrrreat !

Some of my R's have become softer since being in England, such a s red, red robin, would be softer than if I said Great, green or grass. I'm a weird mixture!


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

Alveolar trill is winning. I could go with Godwin's Law to explain why, but instead I'll say it's probably because it's used in opera. But then again, guess who liked opera....


----------



## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Dim7 said:


> Alveolar trill is winning. I could go with Godwin's Law to explain why, but instead I'll say it's probably because it's used in opera. But then again, guess who liked opera....


Who? Alveolus? ....


----------



## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

What about the alveolar tap? I enjoy that one in languages like Japanese and my own conlang. Although sometimes that sound is more of a "d" than an "r". 

My favorite is probably the alveolar trill, however. It's so sexy when sung


----------



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Just sounds like a lot of noise or sounds kids try to make just to be weird. I picked the first one as it sounded the least weird.

Where did you ever come up with this stuff?


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Florestan said:


> Where did you ever come up with this stuff?


Must have been a rich kid and gone to an Ivy League school.


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

All these rhotics can be heard in Dutch, I think.


----------



## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

Remember Ertha Kitt? she used to purrrrrrrr and roll her R's.

She is very funny as Cat Woman.


----------



## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

^^^
Funny, but not Eartha Kitt.


----------



## Guest (Aug 21, 2016)

Dim7 said:


> Rhotic consonant is basically a consonant that is written as "r".
> Here are the different rhotics pronounced (in the same order as below and as in the poll): http://vocaroo.com/i/s17srptsqtEh
> 
> *(Post-)alveolar approximant:* as in English, can be retroflex approximant as well, which is also how r is often pronounced in Mandarin Chinese.
> ...


Some of these sounds can be heard in *Trevor Wishart's* extended vocal technique masterpiece *Anticredos*.
Here's a link to the work:

__
https://soundcloud.com/liv-runesdatter%2Fsong-circus-performing


----------



## Potiphera (Mar 24, 2011)

message deleted.


----------



## Dim7 (Apr 24, 2009)

I've always wondered is the TC member DeepR's username a reference to uvular rhotics?


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I love the alveolar trill & voted for it - it's heard quite a lot in the Scots dialect too. 
I only wish I could produce one - but I was born with a short string to my tongue & have lived my whole life as a lisper! 

(And if you don't give me exactly what I want, I'm going to thcream & thcream & thcream until I'm *thick*!)


----------

