English /r/

[tezcatlip0ca]

I have a postalveolarized velar approximant with a bit of sulcalization...

[finlay]

The first one is found idiosyncratically throughout the English-speaking world AFAIK. I've heard it from kids here and in Texas - it's generally considered a speech defect.

Yeah - it's very much a dialectal feature of the Southeast here, made famous by Johnathan Ross (or 'Wossy') though.

I genuinely thought Jonathan Ross had some sort of speech impediment, but I've been hearing this type of /r/ a lot recently.

I think Ross does have a speech impediment of some description but plays it up because it's very much his trademark. But there are plenty of people out there who wouldn't be considered to have a speech impediment who nevertheless have [ʋ].

[alice]

For what it's worth, I remember a strip in Viz from long ago in which a character intended to be considered posh said "teyibly" for "terribly" - implying that his characteristic-of-part-of-the-upper-class /r/ had a vaguely palatal realisation.

[Travis B.]

It seems we really cannot sum up /r/ in English well at all except that it isn't a velar or uvular fricative - heh.

[finlay]

Even then, they did find [ʁ] in the speech of older rural males in the northeast of England when they did the Survey of English Dialects. It's known as a Northumberland, or County Durham (I forget which), burr – I don't know if it's still attested in anyone's speech or anything, though.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a guttural R. This is now less frequently heard; since the closure of the area's deep mines, many younger people speak in local ways that do not usually include this characteristic.[citation needed] The guttural r sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

English

Speakers of the traditional English dialect of Northumberland and County Durham used a uvular r known as the "Northumbrian burr".[8][9][10] However, this is no longer used by most contemporary speakers, who generally realise /r/ as an alveolar approximant, [ɹʷ], in common with other varieties spoken in the Anglosphere.[11][12]

[Bristel]

Is the English /r/ this: [ɹ̠ˤʷ]?

[Davoush]

Even then, they did find [ʁ] in the speech of older rural males in the northeast of England when they did the Survey of English Dialects. It's known as a Northumberland, or County Durham (I forget which), burr – I don't know if it's still attested in anyone's speech or anything, though.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a guttural R. This is now less frequently heard; since the closure of the area's deep mines, many younger people speak in local ways that do not usually include this characteristic.[citation needed] The guttural r sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

If anyone wants to hear an example of the Northumbrian burr look on here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofeng ... e3_1.shtml

It's REALLY weird

[Travis B.]

So then, English /r/ can really be just about anything vaguely rhotic-ish - lol.

[Lyhoko Leaci]

I have a postalveolarized velar approximant with a bit of sulcalization...

I read that as your /r/ being succulent...

As far as I can tell, it seems to be something in the neighborhood of [ɹʷ] for me. It doesn't seem to be retroflex, though it could be something else...

[TaylorS]

I think there are several types of r-sounds in English:

1. Fully labiodental [ʋ]. Appears in some London(?) dialects.
2. Labiodentalized postalveolar-prevelar [ɰ̟͡ɹ̻̠ᶹ], with the labiodental articulation occasionally approaching a full fricative. (I think this is most likely before /i/, but I'm not sure.) Heard in Maryland, even from speakers who attempt to maintain GA, so it's not very marked, if at all. Might be slightly pharyngealized.
3. Prevelar [ɨ̯]. Occasionally labiodentalized. Might be characteristic of Irish English; Fionn Regan has it.
4. Slightly labialized and pharyngealized postalveolar-postvelar [ʁ̟̹͡ɹ̻̠ˤ]. This is what I have most of the time.
5. Postalveolar-pharyngeal [ʁ̠͡ɹ̺̠]. I think I've heard this referred to as characteristic of Texas, but the singer for Those Poor Bastards has it, and I think he's from Wisconsin.

There might be more information somewhere on Luciano Canepari's site, but I'm not sure how reliable it would be.

I have #4, with inconsistent coronal articulation.

[Skomakar'n]

Some mix between [ɹ] and [r], which I don't know the correct symbol for, that can be heard in certain English dialects, of which I don't know the names. I'm not native, though.

[Jipí]

If anyone wants to hear an example of the Northumbrian burr look on here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofeng ... e3_1.shtml

[dʌʁəm], interesting. Though it sounds more approximantish than German [ʁ] to me, at least in that one recording.

[Mr. Z]

Even then, they did find [ʁ] in the speech of older rural males in the northeast of England when they did the Survey of English Dialects. It's known as a Northumberland, or County Durham (I forget which), burr – I don't know if it's still attested in anyone's speech or anything, though.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a guttural R. This is now less frequently heard; since the closure of the area's deep mines, many younger people speak in local ways that do not usually include this characteristic.[citation needed] The guttural r sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

If anyone wants to hear an example of the Northumbrian burr look on here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofeng ... e3_1.shtml

It's REALLY weird

My computer seems to be unable to load this file. Does anybody know where else can I find it?

[Jipí]

The direct link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofeng ... _burr1.ram (it's a Real Audio file, might need VLC or Real Alternative to play it if you don't use/trust/like Real Player. Totem can play it on Linux.)

[vec]

I like the sound of the burr. It's very nice.

[Zumir]

I can't play the file .

[Jipí]

I can't play the file .

The direct link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofeng ... _burr1.ram (it's a Real Audio file, might need VLC or Real Alternative to play it if you don't use/trust/like Real Player. Totem can play it on Linux.)

Why do people never read what's more or less directly above their posts

[Mbwa]

well... I tried both links and got a message that the file could not be found or something like that.

[vec]

I managed to get VLC to play the one with the burr example but none of the others. They just wouldn't play. RealAudio sucks.

[Radius Solis]

Pretty standard American bunched-R here. There's three articulatory actions in the onset allophone: velar, labiodental, and pharyngeal approximants that all go off simultaneously, in that order of acoustic prominence (i.e. velar is the most prominent part of it). What isn't involved is any kind of coronal articulation, quite the reverse - the tongue tip is actively pulled back away from the alveolar region, as part of the bunching motion. The coda allophone has stronger pharyngealization and is more vocalic in nature but is otherwise similar.

The IPA does not have a dedicated symbol for this pharyngealized labiodentalized velar approximant, but it would make life slightly easier if it did.

[Bedelato]

Broadly speaking, my /r/ is realized as a retroflex [ɻ]. Word-initially it's pretty much just that. In postvocalic positions it tends to be velarized to something like [ɻˠ]~[ɹˠ]; it's also pharyngealized after back vowels only.

It's occasionally labialized in word-initial clusters, but there's obviously more to it, and as tempted as I am to dismiss it as free variation or even observer's paradox, meh. Don't wanna give up just yet.

I just now (edit July 7, 2011 2:53 pm) also noticed occasional velarization word-initially. Same doubts as before though.

[Alces]

My r is a strongly labialised postalveolar approximant which I'd normally write ɹ̠ʷ, but β̞͡ɹ̠ shows just how labialised it is better (That β is supposed to have the down-tack below it by the way; I'm using it because there is no velar articulation involved, as far as I can tell, so w wouldn't be totally accurate).

[TomHChappell]

I don't think this has been discussed in depth recently. Anyway, the English /r/ is kinda weird. It's usually referred to as an alveolar approximant (except I think in Scotland /r/ can be realized as a flap most of the time?), but there's other stuff going on with it that varies a lot. Catford says that it can have a retroflex articulation, "slight deep pharyngalization," and some sort of uvular thing along with that. I've also heard that English /r/ sometimes has a degree of labialization.

What can you guys say about the /r/ in your dialects? My /r/, I'm pretty sure, contains some labialization, like English /S/ can as well. I forget the term, but I recall reading that in this case the labialization is not exactly full rounding of the lips, more like compression or something like that. I can also feel some dorsal thing going on with my /r/ but I'd have a hard time pin-pointing it.

Quite obviously God intended English's /r/ phoneme to be pronounced [r\`], a retroflex approximant, the way I pronounce it. Clearly all other pronunciations (including not pronouncing it at all) are wrong, debased, fallen away from the true path.