Re: Need some help with terms: was "rhotic miscellany"

Sally Caves scripsit:

> Alright, I'm doubly confused, Marcos.  PLACE of articulation?  So
> retroflexion of the tongue would require it to touch the palate?  I have
> always understood a "retroflex r" to mean one in which the tongue is drawn
> back and the tip curled up, so, rather, MANNER of articulation.
In one sense you are right, but retroflex patterns with the other places
(labial, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, velar, uvular, pharyngeal,
laryngeal) rather than the manners (stop, fricative, affricate, ejective,
implosive, click).  The retroflex place consists in the tip of the tongue
being at or near the hard palate.

> Retroflectere: "to bend back."  The tongue pulls back and the tip curls up
> towards the roof of the mouth.  If we stick strictly to the meaning of the
> term itself, then I indeed do pronounce my "r"s in English retroflexively,
> and so, I imagine, do millions of other Americans.
But others don't.  I, for example, pronounce "r" with alveolopalatal
articulation: the tip of my tongue is behind but not touching my
lower teeth, while the blade of the tongue approximates my hard palate.

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