Re: Harsh vs. Soft Sounds

>As you've probably gathered by now, I hold German to be a more beautiful-
>sounding language than French. Apparently a minority opinion ...
>
>                                                           Andreas
Count me into the minority.  I don't mind uvular r's, though.  Danish has
them, and I think they sound fine but can be monstrously difficult to
pronounce when adjoining a front sound (either vowel or consonant).  (I was
going to give an example, but realized that I can't even transcribe it due
to the peculiar lenition of Danish coronal stops.)  The French r that I
learned was a uvular trill, which can get harsh, but the Danish r is a
voiced uvular approximate.  There isn't any IPA or X-SAMPA given for that
spot in the chart I consulted: it's empty.  (Does't anyone *care* about
transcribing Danish r's accurately?!)

Isidora

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