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From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael b maxwell)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Double 'R'
Message-ID: <352@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 15:33:34 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.352
Posted: Mon Oct 28 15:33:34 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 30-Oct-85 07:22:08 EST
References: <2176@brl-tgr.UUCP> <9500005@prism.UUCP> <2404@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael b maxwell)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 22

In article <2404@brl-tgr.ARPA> wmartin@brl-bmd.UUCP writes:
>>	If I remember my high school Spanish at all, one "rolls" a
>>	double r (sort of allowing your tongue to flutter a bit while
>>	uttering the sound) -- effectively pronouncing it twice.
>I have never been able to do this (rolling the "r" sound). Is doing this 
>sort of thing (and similar vibratory sounds, like the Arab ululation done 
>with a flapping tongue) something you have to learn as a small child, and 
>is impossible (or at least very difficult) to teach oneself at a later age?
No, in articulatory phonetics classes I've seen taught (by the Summer
Institute of Linguistics), almost everyone learns to do the Spanish (etc.)
rr, as well as a host of other sounds at least as difficult.  The only
sounds they (SIL) give people slack on are the Parisian r (which is done by
fluttering the uvula at the back of your mouth), and pharyngeal fricatives
(I won't even try to describe them, save to say that they are made in the
throat just above your Adam's apple).  You might try using a bigger flow of
air--I can only make an rr if I'm speaking fairly strongly (i.e. it's
extremely hard to whisper an rr).  Don't try just making lots of single r's
in a row, it's quite different.
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Artificial Intelligence Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm