Re: Alveolar Trill Help

Wow.  Thank you for the very fast and knowledgeable response!  I will
try these...

- Jacob


On Thursday, July 29, 2004, at 08:43  PM, Mark P. Line wrote:

> Jacob Weaver said:
>>
>> After browsing some of the messages on this listserv, I wondered if
>> someone might be able
>> to help - how exactly does one go about learning to produce an
>> alveolar
>> trill?  I am a native
>> English speaker and have never been able to produce it, but my
>> understanding is that I
>> physically should be able to train myself somehow.
>
> Phonetics is one of the few things that is best learned in person from
> an
> expert (as opposed to studying printed material on the subject, or
> figuring it out for yourself).
>
> Lacking that, though, you might try to find a copy of Ken Pike's
> _Phonemics_ which has some pretty detailed articulatory instructions
> for
> most types of sounds you'll encounter in natlangs.
>
> His instructions for the apical trills are as follows (p. 37):
>
> "2a. Try to produce a tongue-tip trill in one of the following ways:
> Let
> the tongue hang loosely, with the tongue tip a bit closer to the top of
> the mouth than it would be in a position for [z]. Blow sharply over the
> tip of the tongue.
>
> "2b. Start with a flap produced in one of the ways given in the
> preceding
> exercises. Once the flap is being produced easily, the student should
> attempty to leave the tongue in the general flap position or bring it
> back
> rapidly but loosely and relaxed to the same position from which it
> flapped. If he feels a bit of vibration develop, he should continue to
> work on the sound until he can get full control of the trill. Sharp
> bursts
> of breath are more likely to start such a vibration than a normal
> breath
> movement.
>
> "2c. Once the sound has been made for the first time, the student
> should
> continue practicing it in various positions in relation to vowels and
> words until he can control it easily."
>
>
> Pike adds the following footnote: "Many people find alveolar and uvular
> trills among the hardest sounds for them to learn. The reason for this
> is
> that the sounds must be made automatically; no placing of the tongue
> can
> as such make certain the production of the sounds. The student can
> merely
> approximate the general tongue position and experiment with mimicry
> until
> he feels the first accidental vibrations. Once he does so, he can then
> by
> assiduous practice gain control over them."
>
>
> What Pike's saying in the footnote is that one way to learn phonetics
> is
> to do it the way babies do: by babbling, and comparing your babbles to
> the
> sounds other people are making.
>
> Finally, I've noticed that some people do better learning their first
> trills (especially bilabial and apical) if they start with the
> voiceless
> ones.
>
> -- Mark
>