I like rolled R's. I watched an Icelandic movie last night, and one of the characters, a young teenage girl, had especially nice, exaggerated (so it seemed to me) rolled R's.
Last night in my Spanish class, I discovered that I cannot do a rolled R when it's preceded by an L, as in "el reloj." I have to either hold the L out longer than I should (to give my tongue a chance to prepare itself, I think) or put a break between the letters, or add a tiny bit of a vowel between them. I guess the best strategy would be to hold out the L too long, in hopes that I can make it shorter and shorter with time.
Do young Spanish-speaking children ever have a problem with this?
The name of the Icelandic movie, by the way, is "Mávahlátur." The English title is "Laughter of Seagulls."
Here's a question for you R-rollers: does your tongue always flutter against the same part of your mouth, or does it change depending on what letter precedes it? It seems to me that my problem could be resolved by keeping my tongue in the position it's in for the L, rather than having to move it back slightly to where I pronounce my R's.
I just listened to Mireille Mathieu singing "La Marseillaise," and noticed that she rolls her R's. I see she's from Avignon. Is that how they pronounce R in that area, or do singers just like to roll their R's?
Yeah, I speak Spanish, Deborah, and my tongue stays in the same spot when I roll my R's. My L's and R's are pronounced in the same place. I don't know how to describe it, but starting from the teeth, you go back until right before you hit a depression on the roof of your mouth.
Just wondering, do you have trouble with words like "carlos" or if it were spelled like "carrlos" also?
I think in general, when you have an R after an L in Spanish, it can be held out a little longer. Are you completely trilling the R or just flapping it? I'm a Spanish speaker, and pronouncing something like "elreloj" is really difficult. The R needs to be trilled as if there were two R's. That's why the word "alrededor" is pronounced as "alrrededor".
(Yes, all of the quoted words things are spelled correctly. I 'invented' words for this.)
Deborah : Mireille's <r>s are just... Mireillish.
Thanks for the help, Richard. No, I have no problem with Carlos, or with Carrlos. I just realized that "elreloj" is probably more difficult than some other "elr..." combinations because of having to get back to L again. I think I may have been putting my tongue too far forward in the L.
I wish I could roll my R's better after "i", and I wish I could roll them longer, as I was able to do when I studied Italian in my youth -- or as Mireille does. Maybe she does that just because she can.
hey Deborah!
You should try some tongue action on another females genitals that should get your tongue used to the rolled rs! LOL!
I'm actually surprised it took this long.
"Maybe she does that just because she can"
Or because Mireille Matthieu has to peut-etre?
Mireille Matthieu is a whore!
Yes, r is a funny one. In slavic languages it is rolled heavily and acts as a vowel in some cases. I've mentioned some examples in previous posts. My parents can say the English version of "r" but they tend to at times to roll it very heavily.
I have the opposite problem that when I speak the old tongue I can't roll it properly.
what's the old tongue frances?
having a good ole conversation whilst practising cunnilingus on your lesbian soul mate or your pet dog?
An oass mie well av fowa legs, Brennus, bu' two of em ah left legs an two of em ah roi'.
Ve Japanese don' use /r/ fowa /l/ bu' somefing kind of in between fowa bofe of em.
I haven't heard any other language that uses the General American English R sound;
That is true, there are only two languages that have that R sound, English and Mandarin Chinese. The -er like sound what I think you are talking about. It is a retroflex R, as your tongue curls back and up.
In some varieties of Irish too! Where do you think the Americans get it from? Think about it!
Colm, although American accents owe a lot to Irish accents, West Country accents also must have had an influence on the American R.