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Help with pronunciation: The R

de free4eternity, 2009-novembro-04

Mesaĝoj: 9

Lingvo: English

free4eternity (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-04 08:25:51

Hi all, I am trying desperately to pronounce the trilled R, but to no avail. Can someone please tell me how do you do it? Thanks in advance.

mnlg (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-04 09:13:09

I am Italian, and it comes naturally to me; I could describe the position of my tongue or its movement during the air flow, but I am not sure it would help (anyway if you insist...).

However, I googled your problem and I found this link. I hope it can help.

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-04 10:05:04

I swear this is the topic in the English forums with the most threads of its own lango.gif

You're also allowed to do a tapped R in Esperanto (well, technically you can do any sort of well known R, but the rolled and tapped ones are like defacto standards). They say that the tap is like the 'tt' in butter but this is not helpful at all (and not entirely true for most English speakers). If you want to get a good feel for a tapped R listen to some Spanish (which also has a rolled R) or listen to some Japanese (although here the R alternates with something more like L).

It becomes easier if you've listened to languages which it's in.

Good luck ridulo.gif

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-04 11:04:09

free4eternity:Hi all, I am trying desperately to pronounce the trilled R, but to no avail. Can someone please tell me how do you do it? Thanks in advance.
Try saying what you have just written using the tip of the tongue only - don't use the sides. See if that works.

Frankouche (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-04 12:51:37

Imitate :

- Motor
- Machine gun
- Drum of pipe band

can be a good beginning rideto.gif

The most important is to make the tongue vibrating.

Roberto12 (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-06 13:08:44

The important thing in speaking a language is getting the phonemes right. The particular pronunciations are of secondary importance. Thus, it's fine to use an English R in Esperanto, because your listeners will recognise that it's an R. (It wouldn't be acceptable to pronounce it like an L or a W, say, because then there could be confusion.)

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-06 16:27:26

The English R is a tricky one, it's been discussed on these forums before, as many of you know.

Bottom line - yes, you can use a plain old English-language non-rolled R in Esperanto...

::::*BUT::::*
...you risk not being understood, or being understood only with difficulty.

Speakers of some languages literally cannot even hear that the English R is there at all, when we pronounce it. Using the English R will also have you speaking with a heavy "foreign" accent which will be easy for other English speakers to understand but difficult for speakers of some other languages. I've had a number of experiences when an experienced Esperanto speaker with a heavy 'national' accent has told me that they don't think their accent is hard to understand, when in fact, it is (for people who aren't used to the sounds of that person's native language).

So my advice - yes, do indeed try to get the accent "right" (as neutral as possible, so that people can't tell what your native language is). If you can't do it, no problem, the most important part really is the grammar and vocabulary etc. But the important part of learning a language is to be understood, and having understandable pronunciation is also an important part of that. Especially if you are British or Australian or South African (looks like it's a Canadian asking, but obviously others are reading), because many of the regional accents in those places drop R's, and you absolutely can't do that in Esperanto!

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-06 16:57:04

erinja:because many of the regional accents in those places drop R's, and you absolutely can't do that in Esperanto!
So many Aussie Esperantists need to be told that ridulo.gif Thank god there are so many English speakers otherwise there'd be no chance of them being understood lango.gif

Also I might also add (although some people won't like me for this) that the French/German/Guttural R is just as hard to understand as the English/Mandarin/etc R, so I'd advise against using that instead of the English one. They're both as soft as each other. For maximum audibility and clarity you need that rolling alveolar R sound, which sounds strange to us English speakers who are so used to using a softer sound.

Rogir (Montri la profilon) 2009-novembro-06 17:17:51

In general, the English r before a vowel can be understood, but after a vowel it tends to dissappear: bordo becomes boŭdo or bodo. So try to accent these a bit more.

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