Voiced uvular trill

A voiced uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, a small capital version of the Latin letter r. This consonant is one of several collectively called guttural R.

Features

Features of a voiced uvular trill:

Template:Trill Unlike in tongue-tip trills, it is the uvula, not the tongue, that vibrates.Template:Sfnp Template:Uvular Template:Voiced Template:Oral Template:Median articulation Template:Pulmonic

Occurrence

File:Uvular rhotics in Europe.png

Distribution of guttural r (such as ) in Europe in the mid-20th century.

  not usual

  only in some educated speech

  usual in educated speech

  general

There are two main hypotheses regarding the origin of the uvular trill in European languages. According to one hypothesis, the uvular trill originated in Standard French around the 17th century and spread to the standard varieties of German, Danish, Portuguese, and some of those of Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. It is also present in other areas of Europe, but it is not clear if such pronunciations are due to French influence. In most cases, varieties have shifted the sound to a voiced uvular fricative or approximant .

The other main hypothesis is that the uvular trill originated within Germanic languages through the weakening and vocalization of the alveolar trill toward an open back vowel (notable for its pharyngealization), with the uvular trill subsequently emerging as a strengthened articulation of this vocalization. Accordingly, there is ample evidence that the uvular trill existed in German dialects long before the 17th century, suggesting that while the French usage may have influenced its spread, it was not the ultimate origin.Template:Sfnp

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Parts of the former Cape ProvinceTemplate:Sfnp			'red'	May be a fricative Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	North Mesopotamian		[ˈqʌmʌʀ]	'moon'	Corresponds to [r, ɾ] in most other varieties. See Arabic phonology
Breton	Kerneveg		[bʀoː]	'country'	Corresponds to [r~ʁ] in standard Breton. See Breton phonology
Catalan	Some northern dialectsTemplate:Sfnp			'to run'	See Catalan phonology
DutchTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp	Belgian LimburgTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Error	'red'	More commonly a flap.Template:Sfnp Uvular pronunciations appear to be gaining ground in the Randstad.Template:Sfnp Realization of varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	Central NetherlandsTemplate:Sfnp
	RandstadTemplate:Sfnp
	Southern NetherlandsTemplate:Sfnp
	Flemish BrabantTemplate:Sfnp				More commonly a flap.Template:Sfnp It is one of the least common realizations of in these areas.Template:Sfnp See Dutch phonology
	Northern NetherlandsTemplate:Sfnp
	West FlandersTemplate:Sfnp
Estonian	Some speakers, mostly in Tartu County		[kuʀk]	'cucumber'
English	Cape FlatsTemplate:Sfnp	red		'red'	Possible realization of ; may be instead.Template:Sfnp See South African English phonology
	Northumbrian dialectTemplate:Sfnp				More often a fricative.Template:Sfnp Dialectal "Northumbrian Burr", mostly found in eastern Northumberland, declining. See English phonology
	Sierra LeoneanTemplate:Sfnp				More often a fricative.Template:Sfnp
FrenchTemplate:Sfnp			Template:Error	'rendezvous', 'appointment'	Dialectal. More commonly an approximant or a fricative Template:IPAblink. See French phonology
German	StandardTemplate:Sfnp		Template:Error	'red'	In free variation with a voiced uvular fricative and approximant. Can be realized as voiceless after voiceless consonants. See Standard German phonology
Hebrew				'green'	May also be a fricative or approximant. See Modern Hebrew phonology
ItalianTemplate:Sfnp	Some speakersTemplate:Sfnp			'rare'	Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill Template:IPAblink, due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in South Tyrol (bordering with German-speaking Austria), Aosta Valley (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a voiced uvular fricative Template:IPAblink or a labiodental approximant Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Italian phonology.
Japreria		peŕo		'dog'	Contrasts with flap [ɾ], represented orthographically by ŕ.
Judaeo-Spanish				'woman', 'wife'
Low Saxon	Zwols			'prices'	Only in the city and its immediate surroundings, not in the area surrounding Zwolle.
LuxembourgishTemplate:Sfnp				'silence'	Prevocalic allophone of .Template:Sfnp See Luxembourgish phonology
Occitan	Eastern			'oak'	Contrasts with alveolar trill ( 'cured')
	Provençal			'parts'	See Occitan phonology
	Southern Auvergnat			'son'
	Southeastern Limousin
Norwegian	Southern dialects			'strange'	Either an approximant or a fricative. See Norwegian phonology
	Southwestern dialects
Portuguese	EuropeanTemplate:Sfnp			'to get scarcer'	Alternates with other uvular forms and the older alveolar trill. See Portuguese phonology
	Fluminense			'market', 'fair'	Tendency to be replaced by fricative pronunciations. In coda position, it is generally in free variation with Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink before non-voicing environments.
	Sulista			'cabbage'	Alternates with the alveolar trill and Template:IPAblink depending on the region. Never used in coda.
Romani	Some dialects			'man'	Allophone of a descendant of the Indic retroflex set, so often transcribed . A coronal flap, approximant or trill in other dialects; in some it merges with
Selkup	Northern dialects	ӄаӄри		'sledge'	Allophone of before liquids
Sioux	LakotaTemplate:Sfnp	ǧí		'it's brown'	Allophone of before
Sotho	Regional variant			'hair'	Imported from French missionaries. See Sesotho phonology
Swedish	Southern			'fox'	See Swedish phonology
Yiddish	Standard			'bridge'	More commonly a flap Template:IPAblink; can be alveolar instead. See Yiddish phonology

Fricative trill

Some languages have a voiced uvular fricative trill, which can be represented in the IPA as Template:Angbr IPA. Teuthonista uses Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr, the first having stronger frication.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish	Standard			'red'	Most often an approximant when initial. In other positions, it can be either a fricative (also described as voiceless Template:IPAblink) or an approximant. Also described as pharyngeal Template:IPAblink. It can be a fricative trill in word-initial positions when emphasizing a word.Template:Sfnp See Danish phonology
Limburgish	MaastrichtianTemplate:Sfnp			'three'	Fricative trill; the fricative component varies between uvular and post-velar.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp See Maastrichtian dialect phonology and Weert dialect phonology
	Weert dialectTemplate:Sfnp
West Flemish	Bruges dialectTemplate:Sfnp			'under'	A fricative trill with little friction. An alveolar Template:IPAblink is used in the neighbouring rural area.Template:Sfnp

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

External links

• Template:Phoible