Pronunciation of /r/

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Woods
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Pronunciation of /r/

Postby Woods » 2021-03-25, 11:54

It's very confusing when to pronounce the German-like /r/ and when the English-like one. Is the German-like one only pronounced at the beginning of a syllable and the English-like one at the end, or does it depend?

Are there differences between regions and how is it in Afrikaans?

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Car
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Re: Pronunciation of /r/

Postby Car » 2021-03-25, 12:03

It seems to depend a lot on the regions. I think the main variants you have are rolled r, French r (including final positions), dropping at the end of the syllable (so rather similar to German) and English r at the end.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Aurinĭa
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Re: Pronunciation of /r/

Postby Aurinĭa » 2021-03-27, 22:33

You can't go wrong with an alveolar r (trill/tap). That's the historical pronunciation, and accepted by everyone. A uvular r is also widely accepted. Whichever you use, try to pronounce it properly no matter where it appears in a word. Any other pronunciation isn't actually standard, although some are becoming more popular, especially in the Randstad area.

Wikipedia has nice sound samples for the different types of r, along with fairly good articles about Dutch phonology.

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Wentletrap
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Re: Pronunciation of /r/

Postby Wentletrap » 2022-09-04, 3:28

Below is something I copied and pasted from my own notes, mostly based on YouTube videos. I am relying on this information, so if it is wrong, please let me know.

"This section is about the Dutch interpretation of /R/. The German interpretation of /R/ is slightly
different. In both German and Dutch the /R/ symbol can refer either to the German /R/ sound, or to a
choice of three sounds. In German this choice of three sounds is {/r/, /R/, /ʁ/} but in Dutch this choice of
three sounds is {/r/, /R/, /ɹ/} [D21], where /r/ is the Spanish "trilled R" (q.v. the Spanish section) and /ɹ/
is the American English "R" (q.v. the American English section). The German /R/ is described briefly
below, in this section. The resulting sound of /R/ is a coarse, gargling sound caused by the uvula flapping
against the tongue. A usage pattern is that if you choose to use /R/ at the beginning of a word that starts
with the letter "r" then you should use the American English /ɹ/ when the letter "r" ends a word [D21]."


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