italki - About English R sound - the tapped one The R sound in English is so variable. The most common execut

Roney Assis Souza

About English R sound - the tapped one

The R sound in English is so variable. The most common execution of this letter is a retroflexive one. But there are accents in which people use a tapped one instead. A good example is Scottish English, that is known by the strong tapped R.

I can tell that many people from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales tap the R. Is this a feature inherited from the Celtic languages that used to be spoken in these countries? Is this an accent more typical of the countryside? Are there accents with tapped R in the USA or Canada?

I hope some native speakers can help me. Thank you in advance.

Jul 10, 2017 8:09 PM

Comments · 5

All Indo-European languages used an alveolar tap. In time, this usually becomes a trill. Recently, some languages have developed "guttural" versions, like Metropolitan French, as well as most German, and (for the double R) most Portuguese speakers. Others developed the "retroflex" approximants, like most English, São Paulo Portuguese, etc. There are also many speakers using semivowels for the syllable final rhotic. The pronunciation of the R tends to be an "area feature" that ignores genetic relationships between languages.

July 10, 2017

In US English, some people realize the R as an alveolar tap after a TH sound, like in “three.” Other than that, it’s always the typical “retroflex” American R, except for influence from foreign languages. Nowadays, a single tap between vowels would be heard as a variant of D or T (the so-called “quick D”).

Yes, in general, you’ll hear more conservative pronunciation among the older population and in the countryside as opposed to the cities. This goes for entirely unrelated languages (such as Vietnamese and their realization of their own R sound) as well.

July 10, 2017

Thank you so much for the comments, Phil.

July 10, 2017

In Middle English I guess the R was trilled. So, this is more likely to be the original sound, right? Therefore, this is probably more used by older people or in the countryside. Am I correct?

July 10, 2017