Pronunciation of R

[Ynas Midgard]

Hi there!

I understand that there is a much greater variation regarding the pronunciation of R than, for instance, in English. As I noticed in some Swedes' speech at least two different Rs (namely, a trilled variant and an approximant not unlike in English, the latter one appearing mostly before consonants (with which R is not combined to make a retroflex sound), I assumed it was not free variation but some sort of complementary distribution.

My question is: are the different R sounds of Swedish in complementary distribution, and if so, in which environments do they appear?

Thank you for your help in advance!

[Mac of BIOnighT]

Hope someone will answer, as I've been wondering about the same thing...

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

The r is rather weak in Swedish, and there are several possible ways of pronouncing it, but I have never thought about if they could be distributed in any particular way. My r is usually as the Welsh rh.

[linguoboy]

My r is usually as the Welsh rh.

Voiceless, really?

[Midnatt]

Well I found it almost voiceless in words like kort or fjorton , but the sound was kinda different from what I heard in där borta.

P.S. My ears may be deceiving me though

[Mac of BIOnighT]

What I've noticed so far is that there's an R in a way similar to the Italian one (but not as "bold"), one similar to the American one (again, not as strong) and an "absent" one as in the British "cart" (more a pause, or a prolonging of the preceding vowel, than a sound).
They seem to depend on/be caused by the surrounding phonemes and be, therefore, unavoidable, as opposed to being chosen word by word.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

My r is usually as the Welsh rh.

Voiceless, really?

Yes, usually as some h + weak r + ɕ, but it sometimes is voiced and then only a ʑ.

[linguoboy]

My r is usually as the Welsh rh.

Voiceless, really?

Yes, usually as some h + weak r + ɕ, but it sometimes is voiced and then only a ʑ.

I'm not sure what you mean by "weak r". The Welsh /r/ is a very strongly-rolled trill with no retroflex quality.

[Jurgen Wullenwever]

When I listened to someone recently, the Welsh r was strong like Finnish r, but the Welsh rh more like the Swedish r that I use, sort of similar to my Swedish tj, but a little different, and with a slight short trill.