Rhotic consonant

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:IPA notice In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho (Ρ and ρ), including [[R|Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket]] in the Latin script and [[Er (Cyrillic)|Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket]] in the Cyrillic script. They are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by upper- or lower-case variants of Roman Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket:<ref name="ladefoged1996sounds" /> Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, Template:Angbr IPA, and Template:Angbr IPA. Transcriptions for vocalic or semivocalic realisations of underlying rhotics include the Template:Angbr IPA and Template:Angbr IPA.

This class of sounds is difficult to characterise phonetically; from a phonetic standpoint, there is no single articulatory correlate (manner or place) common to rhotic consonants.<ref name="lindau">Template:Cite journal</ref> Rhotics have instead been found to carry out similar phonological functions or to have certain similar phonological features across different languages.<ref name="Wiese">Template:Cite book</ref>

Being "R-like" is an elusive and ambiguous concept phonetically and the same sounds that function as rhotics in some systems may pattern with fricatives, semivowels or even stops in others.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, the alveolar flap is a rhotic consonant in many languages, but in North American English, the alveolar tap is an allophone of the stop phoneme Template:IPAslink, as in water. It is likely that rhotics are not a phonetically natural class but a phonological class.<ref name="chabot">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Some languages have rhotic and non-rhotic varieties, which differ in the incidence of rhotic consonants. In non-rhotic accents of English, Template:IPA is not pronounced unless it is followed directly by a vowel.

Types

The most typical rhotic sounds found in the world's languages are the following:<ref name="ladefoged1996sounds">Template:Cite book</ref>

Trill (popularly known as rolled r): The airstream is interrupted several times as one of the organs of speech (usually the tip of the tongue or the uvula) vibrates, closing and opening the air passage. If a trill is made with the tip of the tongue against the upper gum, it is called an apical (tongue-tip) alveolar trill; the IPA symbol for this sound is Template:IPA. Most non-alveolar trills, such as the bilabial one, however, are not considered rhotic.
- Many languages, such as Bulgarian, Swedish, Norwegian, Frisian, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch and most Occitan variants, use trilled rhotics. In the English-speaking world, the stereotyped Scottish rolled Template:IPA is well known. The "stage pronunciation" of German specifies the alveolar trill for clarity. Rare kinds of trills include Czech Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA (fricative trill) and Welsh Template:Angle bracket Template:IPA (voiceless trill).
- The uvular trill is another kind of rhotic trill; see below for more.
Tap or flap (these terms describe very similar articulations): Similar to a trill, but involving just one brief interruption of airflow. In many languages flaps are used as reduced variants of trills, especially in fast speech. However, in Spanish, for example, flaps and trills contrast, as in pero Template:IPA ("but") versus perro Template:IPA ("dog"). Also flaps are used as basic rhotics in Japanese and Korean languages. In Australian English and most American dialects of English, taps do not function as rhotics but are realizations of intervocalic apical stops (Template:IPA and Template:IPA, as in butter and cider). The IPA symbol for these sounds is Template:IPA (or substandard Template:IPA for the tap, contrasted with the flap Template:IPA).
Alveolar or retroflex approximant (as in most accents of English—with minute differences): The front part of the tongue approaches the upper gum, or the tongue-tip is curled back towards the roof of the mouth ("retroflexion"). No or little friction can be heard, and there is no momentary closure of the vocal tract. The IPA symbol for the alveolar approximant is Template:IPA and the symbol for the retroflex approximant is Template:IPA. There is a distinction between an unrounded retroflex approximant and a rounded variety that probably could have been found in Anglo-Saxon and even to this day in someTemplate:Which dialects of English, where the orthographic key is r for the unrounded version and usually wr for the rounded version (these dialects will make a differentiation between right and write).Template:Citation needed Also used as a rhotic in some dialects of Armenian, Dutch, German, Brazilian Portuguese (depending on phonotactics).
Uvular (popularly called guttural r): The back of the tongue approaches the soft palate or the uvula. The standard Rs in European Portuguese, French, German, Danish, and Modern Hebrew<ref name="Zuckermann">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp are variants of this rhotic. If fricative, the sound is often impressionistically described as harsh or grating. This includes the voiced uvular fricative, voiceless uvular fricative, and uvular trill. In northern England, there were accents that once employed a uvular R, which was called the "Northumbrian burr".
developmental non-rhotic Rs: Many non-rhotic British speakers have a labialization to Template:IPAblink of their Rs, which is between idiosyncratic and dialectal (southern and southwestern England), and since it includes some RP speakers, somewhat prestigious.Template:Citation needed Apart from English, in all Brazilian Portuguese dialects the Template:Angle bracket phoneme, or Template:IPA, may be actually realized as other, traditionally non-rhotic, fricatives<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (and most often is so), unless it occurs single between vowels, being so realized as a dental, alveolar, postalveolar or retroflex flap. In the syllable coda, it varies individually as a fricative, a flap or an approximant, though fricatives are ubiquitous in the Northern and Northeastern regions and all states of Southeastern Brazil but São Paulo and surrounding areas. The total inventory of Template:IPA allophones is rather long, or up to Template:IPA (Caipira speakers with Template:IPAplink and Eastern speakers, under influence of Andean Spanish) Template:IPA, the latter eight being particularly common, while none of them except archaic Template:IPAblink, that contrasts with the flap in all positions, may occur alone in a given dialect.Template:Citation needed Few dialects, such as sulista and fluminense, give preference to voiced allophones; elsewhere, they are common only as coda, before voiced consonants. Additionally, some other languages and variants, such as Haitian Creole and Timorese Portuguese, use velar and glottal fricatives instead of traditional rhotics, too. In Vietnamese, depending on dialect, the rhotic can occur as Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA. In modern Mandarin Chinese, the phoneme Template:IPA, which is represented as Template:Angle bracket in Hanyu Pinyin, resembles the rhotics in other languages in realization, thus it can be considered a rhotic consonant.

Furthermore, there is also a non-syllabic open vowel Template:IPA (conventional transcription, the exact quality varies) that patterns as Template:IPA in some Germanic languages such as German, Danish and Luxembourgish. It occurs only in the syllable coda.

Characteristics

In broad transcription rhotics are usually symbolised as Template:IPA unless there are two or more types of rhotic in the same language; for example, most Australian Aboriginal languages, which contrast approximant Template:IPA and trill Template:IPA, use the symbols r and rr respectively. The IPA has a full set of different symbols which can be used whenever more phonetic precision is required: an r rotated 180° Template:IPA for the alveolar approximant, a small capital R Template:IPA for the uvular trill, and a flipped small capital R Template:IPA for the voiced uvular fricative or approximant.

The fact that the sounds conventionally classified as "rhotics" vary greatly in both place and manner in terms of articulation, and also in their acoustic characteristics, has led several linguists to investigate what, if anything, they have in common that justifies grouping them together.<ref name = chabot /> One suggestion that has been made is that each member of the class of rhotics shares certain properties with other members of the class, but not necessarily the same properties with all; in this case, rhotics have a "family resemblance" with each other rather than a strict set of shared properties.<ref name="lindau" /> Another suggestion is that rhotics are defined by their behaviour on the sonority hierarchy, namely, that a rhotic is any sound that patterns as being more sonorous than a lateral consonant but less sonorous than a vowel.<ref name="Wiese" /> The potential for variation within the class of rhotics makes them a popular area for research in sociolinguistics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rhotics and rhoticity in the world's languages

English

Template:Main English has rhotic and non-rhotic accents. Rhotic speakers pronounce a historical Template:IPA in all instances, while non-rhotic speakers only pronounce Template:IPA at the beginning of a syllable.

Dutch

Colloquial Northern Dutch speech of the Randstad region is variably rhotic. In the syllable coda, the sequences Template:IPA may be realized as Template:IPA, which may be close to or the same as the vowels or sequences Template:IPA, resulting in a variable merger. For instance, kerk 'church' and cake 'pound cake' may become homophonous as Template:IPA, whereas maar 'but' can be homophonous with maai '(I) mow' as Template:IPA. Template:IPA and Template:IPA are usually somewhat distinct from Template:IPA and Template:IPA as the former feature vowels that are more central (and Template:IPA features a diphthong Template:IPA in certain dialects, such as Rotterdam Dutch).Template:Sfnp

After Template:IPA, Template:IPA may be dropped altogether, as in kilometer Template:IPA 'kilometer'. This is commonly heard in The Hague. It is not necessarily restricted to the word-final position, as it can also happen in word-final clusters in words such as honderd Template:IPA 'hundred'.Template:Sfnp

After Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA, Template:IPA may be realized as a centering glide, as in mier Template:IPA 'ant', muur Template:IPA 'wall', moer Template:IPA 'queen bee', meer Template:IPA 'lake' and deur Template:IPA 'door'. As with Template:IPA and Template:IPA, these vowels are more central (and also longer) than in other contexts. Furthermore, both Template:IPA and Template:IPA are raised in this context, so that meer becomes a near-homophone of mier, whereas deur becomes a quasi-rhyme of muur.Template:Sfnp

In citation forms, Template:IPA in the syllable coda is pronounced as a pharyngealized pre-velar bunched approximant Template:IPA (known in Dutch as the Gooise r) that is acoustically similar to Template:IPAblink: Template:IPA etc. Other realizations (alveolar taps and voiced uvular fricatives) are also possible, depending on the region and individual speaker, so that mier may be also pronounced Template:IPA or Template:Audio-IPA. The pre-velar bunched approximant as well as the palatal approximant realization of Template:IPA described above are virtually unknown in southern varieties of Dutch. In the varieties where they do occur, they are restricted to the syllable coda. In other environments, Template:IPA is realized as Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp

Other Germanic languages

The rhotic consonant is dropped or vocalized under similar conditions in other Germanic languages, notably German, Danish, western Norwegian and southern Swedish (both because of Danish influence), rendering the English accents that native speakers of these languages speak with as non-rhotic as well.

In most varieties of German (with the notable exception of Swiss Standard German), Template:IPA in the syllable coda is frequently realized as a vowel or a semivowel, Template:IPA or Template:IPA. In the traditional standard pronunciation, this happens only in the unstressed ending -er and after long vowels: for example besser Template:IPA, sehr Template:IPA. In common speech the vocalization is usual after short vowels as well, and additional contractions may occur: for example Dorn Template:IPA ~ Template:IPA, hart Template:IPA ~ Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Commonplace mergers include that of Template:IPA with Template:IPA (leading to homophony of e.g. warten, waten) and loss of length distinctions before coda Template:IPA (e.g. homophony of Herr, Heer).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Compare German phonology.

Similarly, Danish Template:IPA after a vowel is, unless followed by a stressed vowel, either pronounced Template:IPA (mor "mother" Template:IPA, næring "nourishment" Template:IPA) or merged with the preceding vowel while usually influencing its vowel quality (Template:IPA and Template:IPA or Template:IPA are realised as long vowels Template:IPA and Template:IPA, and Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are all pronounced Template:IPA) (løber "runner" Template:IPA, Søren Kierkegaard (personal name) Template:IPA).

Astur-Leonese

In Asturian, word-final Template:IPA is always lost in infinitives before an enclitic pronoun, which is reflected in writing. For example, the infinitive form dar Template:IPA plus the third-person plural dative pronoun "-yos" da-yos Template:IPA ("give to them") or the accusative form "los" dalos Template:IPA ("give them"). That happens also in Leonese in which the infinitive form is "dare" Template:IPA, and both the Template:IPA and the vowel are dropped (da-yos, not *dáre-yos). However, most speakers also drop rhotics in the infinitive before a lateral consonant of a different word, but that is not shown in writing: dar los dos Template:IPA (give the two [things]). That does not occur in the middle of words: the name Carlos Template:IPA.

Catalan

In some Catalan dialects, word-final Template:IPA is lost in coda position not only in suffixes of nouns and adjectives denoting the masculine singular and plural (written as -r, -rs; as well as in words like llavors Template:IPA "then; so"), but also in the "-ar, -er and -ir" suffixes of infinitives: forner Template:IPA "(male) baker", forners Template:IPA, fer Template:IPA "to do", lluir Template:IPA "to shine, to look good". However, rhotics are "recovered" when followed by the feminine suffix -a Template:IPA, and when infinitives have single or multiple enclitic pronouns (notice the two rhotics are neutralized in the coda, with a flap Template:IPA occurring between vowels, and a trill Template:IPA elsewhere); e.g. fornera Template:IPA "(female) baker", fer-lo Template:IPA "to do it (masc.)", fer-ho Template:IPA "to do it/that/so", lluir-se Template:IPA "to excel, to show off".

French

Final ⟨r⟩ is generally not pronounced in words ending in ⟨-er⟩. The R in parce que ("because") is not pronounced in informal speech.

Malay (including Indonesian)

The pronunciation of final Template:IPA in Malay and Indonesian varies considerably. In Indonesian, Template:Lang (Template:Lit) Malay, and Kedah Malay, the final Template:IPA is pronounced, but in the Johor-Riau accent, the standard accent of Malay in Brunei and Malaysia, and several other dialects, it is not.

The quality of the realization of the phoneme varies too. In the syllable onset, in Indonesian, Template:Lang Malay, and standard Johor-Riau Malay, it varies between a trill Template:IPAblink, a flap Template:IPAblink, and sometimes, even an approximant Template:IPAblink. In many dialects of Malay, such as those of Kedah, Kelantan-Pattani and Terengganu, onset Template:IPA is usually realized as a velar fricative Template:IPAblink. In Perak Malay, a uvular pronunciation, Template:IPAblink is more common.

In Kedah Malay, final Template:IPA is uniquely realized as a pharyngeal fricative Template:IPAblink. In the dialect of Malacca, when it appears after Template:IPA, final Template:IPA is vocalized into Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink.

Portuguese

In some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, Template:IPA is unpronounced or aspirated. That occurs most frequently with verbs in the infinitive, which is always indicated by a word-final Template:IPA. In some states, however, it happens mostly with any Template:IPA when preceding a consonant. The "Carioca" accent (from the city of Rio de Janeiro) is notable for this. The Caipira dialect (from São Paulo countryside) usually realizes Template:IPA as Template:IPA, Template:IPA, or Template:IPA.

Spanish

Among the Spanish dialects, Andalusian Spanish, Caribbean Spanish (descended from and still very similar to Andalusian and Canarian Spanish), Castúo (the Spanish dialect of Extremadura), Northern Colombian Spanish (in cities like Cartagena, Montería, San Andrés and Santa Marta, but not Barranquilla, which is mostly rhotic) and the Argentine dialect spoken in the Tucumán province may have an unpronounced word-final Template:IPA, especially in infinitives, which mirrors the situation in some dialects of Brazilian Portuguese. However, in Antillean Caribbean forms, word-final Template:IPAblink in infinitives and non-infinitives is often in free variation with word-final Template:IPAblink, which may be delateralized to Template:IPAblink, forming a rising diphthong with the preceding vowel (as in dar Template:IPA 'to give').

Thai

The native Thai rhotic is the alveolar trill. The English approximants /ɹ/ and /l/ are used interchangeably in Thai. That is, Thai-speakers generally replace an English-derived r (ร) with an l (ล), and when they hear an l (ล), they may write an r (ร).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Turkish

In Istanbul Turkish, Template:IPA is always pronounced except in colloquial speech for the present continuous tense suffix Template:Lang as in Template:Lang ('going') or Template:Lang ('I was writing') and Template:Lang ('one') when used as an adjective/quantifier (but not other numbers containing this word, such as Template:Lang ('eleven')). In these cases, the preceding vowel is not lengthened. The unfavorability of dropping Template:IPA can be explained with minimal pairs, such as Template:Lang ('stole') versus Template:Lang (imperative 'ring').Template:Citation needed

In some parts of Turkey, like Kastamonu, the syllable-final Template:IPA is almost never pronounced: gidiya instead of gidiyor ("she/he is going") and gide instead of gider ("she/he goes"). In gide, the preceding e is lengthened and pronounced somewhat between e and a.

Chinese

Northern Chinese accents, centered around Beijing, are well known as having erhua which can be translated as "R-change". This normally happens at ends of words, particularly ones that end in an -n/-ng sound. So a southern Chinese might say yī diǎn (一点) ("a little bit") but a Beijinger would say it more like [(j)i tʲɚ] which in Pinyin is sometimes rendered yī diǎnr to show if the word can be rhotacized. The final "R" sound is strongly pronounced, not unlike Irish or American accents.

Uyghur

Among the Turkic languages, Uyghur displays more or less the same feature, as syllable-final Template:IPA is dropped, and the preceding vowel is lengthened: Uyghurlar Template:IPA 'Uyghurs'. The Template:IPA may, however, sometimes be pronounced in unusually "careful" or "pedantic" speech; in such cases, it is often mistakenly inserted after long vowels even when there is no phonemic Template:IPA.

Yaqui

Similarly in Yaqui, an indigenous language of northern Mexico, intervocalic or syllable-final Template:IPA is often dropped with lengthening of the previous vowel: pariseo becomes Template:IPA, sewaro becomes Template:IPA.

Lacid

Lacid, whose exonyms in various literature include Lashi, Lachik, Lechi, and Leqi, is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Lacid people. There are various reports of their population from 30,000 to 60,000 people. Most are in Myanmar, but there are also small groups in China and Thailand.<ref>Noftz 2017, A Literature Review on Segments in Lacid (Lashi)</ref> Noftz (2017) reports finding an example of a rhotic alveolar fricative in Lacid while he was doing phonological research at Payap University, in Thailand, in 2015. He was not able to continue his research and expressed the need for further examination of the segment to verify his results. It is postulated that the segment is a remnant of the rhotic fricative in Proto-Tibeto-Burman.<ref>A Literature Review on Segments in Lachid (Lashi), Robert Noftz, 2017</ref>

Berber languages

Syllable-final Template:IPA is lost in many varieties of Rif Berber and is lengthened before Template:IPA to Template:IPA, and Template:IPA and Template:IPA become diphthongs like in English or German. However, a distinct phoneme Template:IPA from earlier Template:IPA exists and does not undergo the same development.<ref name="Kossmann 1997">Template:Cite web</ref>

References

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