Re: Rs

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 07:23:58PM +0100, Chris Bates wrote:

>  I think I'm doomed to mispronounce rs when learning foreign languages,
> because the english r seems rare, and while I can do the uvular (I think
> its uvular) trill of northern french, school really put me off french
> for life.
Oh, don't worry!  There are *lots* more types of r to try to learn! :)

There's the Japanese one, which is all over the place, sometimes sounding
like d due to being a tap and sometimes sounding like l (yes, I've heard
them doing this, especially in songs; it may be an affectation), and
sometimes rolled broadly in lowlife gangster speak...  and then there's
the r in Mohawk (Native American language of the Iroquoian family), which
often sounds like "rl" (they have no separate l) intervocalically and even
word-initially!  (I really like that sound, despite its mushiness.)

Amanda

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