Re: Chevraqis: a sketch

On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, H. S. Teoh wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 10, 2000 at 02:07:29PM -0400, Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> [snip]
> > Absolutely.  :-)  The best thing my semester of German did for me was
> > *finally* teach me to approximate a rolled r, which 5 years of French
> > failed at (mainly because my last 3 years of French were from a teacher
> > with an American accent so strong even *I* could hear it, especially with
> > two native French speakers in the class, one from Paris!).  And then
> > Korean "r" is something else entirely; I wish I knew the IPA symbol for
> > it, but it's almost an l, and yet not quite.
>
> Hmm... I *still* can't pronounce a rolled r, even though I've been
> speaking English since I was 10! :-(
It doesn't occur in English, is that correct?  And it took me 6-7 years
and a class where the instructor was very good and immersed us in German
from the start.

> As for the Korean "r"... I'm not sure I know which sound it is (gotta
> listen more carefully when I'm around my Korean friends). It *could* be
> similar to the Russian "hard" L. It's pronounced by putting your tongue
> behind your teeth and then pronouncing it as an English L (not sure how
> accurate this is, this is what somebody I met on the net told me). Anyone
> knows Russian around here who can comment? This is the L that occurs in
> "pozhalousta" (sp?) -- response to "spaisiba".
Now I wish I knew more Russian-speakers.  I'll have to ask.  I do know
that Korean "r" is in-betweenish, and when it's, hmm, emphasized? (you
write the consonant twice, and either it's aspirated or something, I
don't know the terminology though I can pronounce the wretched
things--it's called ddwaen-barum, or something?-pronunciation in Korean),
e.g. rr, then it's almost an L-sound.

YHL