Re: Voiced Velar Fricative

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>

> Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
>
> > So German also has instances of the voiced uvular trill? I didn't know
that,
> > although it sounds logical to me, since in both languages the "r"
evolved from
> > a former alveolar trill, and the best way from an alveolar trill to an
uvular
> > fricative is through a stage of uvular trill.
>
> The uvular trill is the normative German pronunciation.  In fact, however,
> German final "r" these days is probably best described as a semivowel
> based on [a], and final unstressed "-er", theoretically /@R/, is quite
> like a short [a].
Yes.  To a diminished degree, Received Standard (British) English does this
with their final "r"s as well (with the hint of a schwa: there=/DE@/),
whereas "r"s before consonants is completely gone, so much so that I've seen
the singer's name Sade spelled in British English "shar-day" in order to
express /Sa'de/, much to the confusion of Americans, some of whom told me
that her name was pronounced "Shar DAY" with the retroflex "r."

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."