Hi all,
My question is about the phonetics (tongue position etc.) for the "r" sound among native speakers of English. I am an almost-native speaker, if there is any such thing - I started speaking english during my teenage years after having studied it since early childhood in school in India, and then moved to US at the age of 21. I am 28 now. I speak English properly and fluently and can be mistaken for an american briefly until some shades of accent show up in certain words.
I notice that the "r sound" in General American English is sort of complex. I did some research on internet and understood that it is a retroflex or bunched and that it is pronounced by curling your tongue towards the back of the mouth fully such that the tip of the toungue does not touch the roof of the mouth (http://www.virtual.le.ucr.ac.cr/pronunciation/pronunc.html). But some sites briefly mentioned that the tip of the toungue touches the back of alveolar ridge (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=883444). So there is some discrepancy there. What is the correct way? They do sound a little bit different.
I also think there are multiple r sounds in General American, as when I try to pronunce the r sound such that the tip does not touch the roof of mouth, then I find it really hard to make the sound when "r" is embedded between 2 vowel sounds. For example, in pharse "only read", r sound is embedded between a vowel sound generated from "y", and vowel sound from "ea". The toungue has to be in front position for both these sounds. So curling the tongue back from "y" to make the r sound and then pulling it to the front of the mouth for the next vowel sound is really difficult. But I am able to do it fine if I make the tip of the tongue touch the roof for r sound as then I am not fully curling the tongue back for "r". Same is the case when making the r sound in the word "experience". These example makes me beleive there are 2 r sounds in General American. Could some native speaker of English clarify this?
I also came to know that some native speakers (such as Scots) pronounce r differently and that is called a "trilled r", which is pronounced by touching the tip of the tongue to the back of the alveolar ridge. But I am interested only in General American and RP English (from England and not from whole of UK), where I think "r" sound is pronounced in the same manner. Is that correct?
Please note that my question(s) is not about rhoticity (which is the tendency of English speakers to drop the r sound in some words), but rather about the "r sound" whenever it is pronounced in English.
In short, if some native speaker could clarify all the "r" sounds in General American or standard British English, that would be really helpful.
Thanks!
RS
PS: By General American, I mean any educated American speech.
By standard British English, I mean any educated English (from England) speech.
My question is about the phonetics (tongue position etc.) for the "r" sound among native speakers of English. I am an almost-native speaker, if there is any such thing - I started speaking english during my teenage years after having studied it since early childhood in school in India, and then moved to US at the age of 21. I am 28 now. I speak English properly and fluently and can be mistaken for an american briefly until some shades of accent show up in certain words.
I notice that the "r sound" in General American English is sort of complex. I did some research on internet and understood that it is a retroflex or bunched and that it is pronounced by curling your tongue towards the back of the mouth fully such that the tip of the toungue does not touch the roof of the mouth (http://www.virtual.le.ucr.ac.cr/pronunciation/pronunc.html). But some sites briefly mentioned that the tip of the toungue touches the back of alveolar ridge (http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=883444). So there is some discrepancy there. What is the correct way? They do sound a little bit different.
I also think there are multiple r sounds in General American, as when I try to pronunce the r sound such that the tip does not touch the roof of mouth, then I find it really hard to make the sound when "r" is embedded between 2 vowel sounds. For example, in pharse "only read", r sound is embedded between a vowel sound generated from "y", and vowel sound from "ea". The toungue has to be in front position for both these sounds. So curling the tongue back from "y" to make the r sound and then pulling it to the front of the mouth for the next vowel sound is really difficult. But I am able to do it fine if I make the tip of the tongue touch the roof for r sound as then I am not fully curling the tongue back for "r". Same is the case when making the r sound in the word "experience". These example makes me beleive there are 2 r sounds in General American. Could some native speaker of English clarify this?
I also came to know that some native speakers (such as Scots) pronounce r differently and that is called a "trilled r", which is pronounced by touching the tip of the tongue to the back of the alveolar ridge. But I am interested only in General American and RP English (from England and not from whole of UK), where I think "r" sound is pronounced in the same manner. Is that correct?
Please note that my question(s) is not about rhoticity (which is the tendency of English speakers to drop the r sound in some words), but rather about the "r sound" whenever it is pronounced in English.
In short, if some native speaker could clarify all the "r" sounds in General American or standard British English, that would be really helpful.
Thanks!
RS
PS: By General American, I mean any educated American speech.
By standard British English, I mean any educated English (from England) speech.