Re: Rhotics (was: Chinese Dialect Question)

On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 08:06 , Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> En réponse à Ray Brown :
>
>
>> Modern French speakers commonly use the Parisian approximant [R], but I
>> have certainly heard both the uvular trilled [R\] and apically trilled
>> [r]
>> , the latter
>> being a mark rural, southern speakers.
>
> Actually, the approximant is anything *but* Parisian. The mark of a
> Parisian accent until up to WWII was that they had the uvular trill [R\]
Like Piaf's "je ne regrette rien"    :)

> rather than the uvular approximant [R]. Nowadays, [R\] is mostly dead
> though.
Mostly, but - thankfully - not entirely.  The priest who officiated at my
son's wedding trilled his uvular very vigorously - marvellous stuff.  And
he wasn't some ancient duffer left over from the WWII era - I would guess
he was in his 30s or 40s.

> The approximant is the mark of Northern accents rather than Parisian
> accents.
Oui , tu as raison - je me trompe   :(((

Ray
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