English "r" and small children

Rolling Writer   Monday, February 07, 2005, 05:01 GMT
"'R' is one of the most difficult sounds to teach. When you think about it, 'r' is produced deep inside the mouth, with the sides of the tongue pressed against the top back molars. But it's not even that simple. Correct production of 'r' also requires the speaker to use tension. That can be the hardest element to teach. Most children substitute a 'w' for an 'r' (wabbit for rabbit, caw for car). This is because of the lack of tension. The jaw and tongue are left loose and so an 'r' cannot be produced."

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"The Brits may recall our dear Roy Jenkins (Member of Parliament) many years ago who declaimed publicly that "there was a certain rancour in The House" (of Parliament). Naturally, everyone wanted to know which particular wanker he was referring to! Alas we never found out but presumed there were many.”

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"It reminds me of Monty Python's 'Life of Brian', where Caesar had this speech impediment, and he was asking the crowd which prisoner they would like weweased (released). They kept giving him 'r' names just to hear him mispronounce them. 'wewease bwian!'"
Elmer Fudd   Monday, February 07, 2005, 06:23 GMT
Where did that wascally wabbit go.
Elmer Fudd   Monday, February 07, 2005, 06:32 GMT
Mxsmanic   Monday, February 07, 2005, 06:48 GMT
None of the rhotic sounds are particularly difficult to pronounce, but it can be difficult to guess how to pronounce based only on how they sound. English uses a postalveolar approximant, [&#633;], with the tip of the tongue curved slightly backwards and held fairly close to the back of the alveolar ridge. A uvular fricative [&#641;], produced by letting the back of the tongue rise and lightly touch the uvula, is considerably more common among languages, and is used notably by French and German; sometimes the closely related uvular trill, [&#640;], is pronounced). At least as common as the uvular 'r' are the alevolar tap [&#638;] and trill [r] of Spanish and countless other languages, pronounced by touching the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (English also occasionally uses this tap for intervocalic /t/, e.g., <i>butter</i> [b&#652;&#638;&602;]).
A Chinese   Monday, February 07, 2005, 07:45 GMT
I am learning English and I was surprised when I read an article here in which Tom gave us advice on practising the sound of "r". It seems the "r" has never bothered me, perhaps because in Chinese language there is a certain sound called "erhuayin" (-r sound) which is little bit similar to it and help me pronounce the sound of "r" in English more easily. Mr. Steve K may be able to explain this.

However, the sound of "r" in German language is really difficult for me. I have given up learning German, temporarily, because of this sound.
Cro Magnon   Monday, February 07, 2005, 19:01 GMT
I have no problem with the English "r". My attempt to say the Spanish "rr", however, sounds like a dog growling, or gargling. Or maybe a dog gargling!
Tiffany   Monday, February 07, 2005, 19:17 GMT
Funny you should say that Cro Magnon. You should see the discussion of the origin of the word "perro" - Spanish for dog.

http://antimoon.com/forum/posts/6384-8.htm
Chris   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 13:52 GMT
HI everyone,

Certainly I dont have problems with the R in "perro" since Spanish is my native language, yet I still can't pronounce the English R well.
Rolling Writer, thanks for the tips, but what about the position of the tip of the tongue?? where should it be when pronouncing the English R?
Tom K.   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 14:33 GMT
The tip of the tongue shouldn't be touching anything.
Sanja   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 18:01 GMT
Our "R" is even harder to pronounce than the English "R", small children can't say it at all.
Tom K.   Tuesday, February 08, 2005, 20:39 GMT
And what language would that be?
Sanja   Friday, February 11, 2005, 18:14 GMT
Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian). Our "R" sounds like in Russian or in Spanish or in Greek etc., not like in English. But French "R" is much harder for me to pronounce than the English "R".
Ved   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 00:09 GMT
The Serbo-Croatian /r/ is rrroled, just like the Spanish or Russian /r/ sounds. While I was growing up, I had problems pronouncing my SC /r/s, but no problem whatsoever pronouncing my retroflex English /r/s, which I also used in my Serbo-Croatian. One day, (I was about seven), I was pretend-driving a pretend-bus and imitating the sound of a rrrrrrroaring engine (using my retroflex /r/), when, all of a sudden, my tongue started vibrating and I was able to pronounce my SC /r/s correctly!
Ved   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 00:11 GMT
Ooops, Sanja, this is funny. We used the same languages for our example and in the same order. I've just noticed your posting.
Sanja   Saturday, February 12, 2005, 11:50 GMT
What a coincidence :)
Yes, I also used to have problems pronouncing "R" for a long time. I still can't really pronounce it 100% correctly... LOL :)
( I don't have problems pronouncing it in the words, but I can't say long RRRRRRR ).