Re: Fave conlangs and essentialist explanations

On Thursday 04 April 2002 23:34, Joe wrote:

> > [GR\] (IPA ram's horns (not quite greek l-c gamma) and s-c R) is a
> > sequence of voiced velar fricative and (voiced) uvular trill. And
> > IIRC, that is in fact what some variants of Dutch have in groen ---
> > but I think the standard description says [Grun], with an alveolar
> > trill instead.
>
> Hmmm...the book I read said that both were acceptable.
In the nineteen-sixties, the fashion said that the alveolar trill was
the only acceptable /r/ and the uvular trill was sub-standard. I had
two years of (unsuccessful) speech therapy in elementary school to get
rid of my natural [R]. About sixty per cent of Dutch speakers have a
natural [R].

These days, indeed, both are acceptable, though the current fashion is
more like a soft velar glide, almost [j] but more to the back.

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org  Back up, but not perfect yet: www.valdyas.org/irina
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| Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else. |
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