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trill or tap?

by adrianlfc9, February 26, 2013

Messages: 8

Language: English

adrianlfc9 (User's profile) February 26, 2013, 3:50:24 PM

i assume the beginning 'r' in a word is a trill, but is a medial or ending 'r' in a word a trill or tap? how would one say 'iri'? would it kind of sound like 'irrrri'? or shorter?

Ganove (User's profile) February 27, 2013, 12:44:38 AM

Every Esperanto 'r' should be pronounced as a short rolled 'r' like a Spanish 'r'.

Here are some listening examples for an Esperanto 'r':
in the beginning
in the middle
in the end

You can find more examples if you go through the course.

orthohawk (User's profile) February 27, 2013, 2:50:00 AM

Ganove:Every Esperanto 'r' should be pronounced as a short rolled 'r' like a Spanish 'r'.

Here are some listening examples for an Esperanto 'r':
in the beginning
in the middle
in the end

You can find more examples if you go through the course.
You better run this by the Lernu Esperanto cabal before you go pontificating or you'll be dnounced before all of Esperantujo as a rube.

erinja (User's profile) February 27, 2013, 11:59:34 AM

Wow. That response sounded rude. Want to re-word that?

Bruso (User's profile) February 27, 2013, 3:44:48 PM

adrianlfc9:i assume the beginning 'r' in a word is a trill, but is a medial or ending 'r' in a word a trill or tap? how would one say 'iri'? would it kind of sound like 'irrrri'? or shorter?
Is there any reason to pronounce an initial r unlike a non-initial r? I know Spanish does that, but Spanish isn't a conlang. Allowing for some sandhi phenomena, Esperanto should be one letter-one sound.

Makes more sense to save the trill for geminated-r (as in "superrigardo" ).

BenjamenoPoeto (User's profile) February 27, 2013, 11:46:39 PM

If you want to learn how to pronounce Esperanto, I suggest listening to Esperantists known for having good pronunciation. A good example of someone that can easily be found on Youtube is Ivo Lapenna. For a native English speaker with good pronunciation, there are some Youtube videos out there of William Auld reciting poetry too.

adrianlfc9 (User's profile) February 28, 2013, 12:15:30 AM

Dankon for the help,
I think i will look those people up

erinja (User's profile) February 28, 2013, 3:20:08 AM

Bottom line - there's a wide range of what's considered acceptable in Esperanto. But in general a single tap is sufficient for an r in any place in a word, and for two r's together, a bit more of a trill. But if the best you can get is a trill for any kind of r, that's fine. The important thing is to pronounce the r clearly so that you are understood. A standard English R is not always heard as an R by Esperanto speakers from other linguistic backgrounds, which is why we try to get the tap or the trill if we can.

Do your best but don't get too hung up on it.

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