R-colored vowel

In phonetics, vocalic r refers to the phenomenon of a rhotic segment such as IPA| [r] or IPA| [ɹ] occurring as the syllable nucleus. This is a feature of a number of Slavic languages such as Czech, Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian, as well as some western Bulgarian dialects. It also appears in languages like English and Mandarin Chinese, where it occurs as an r-colored vowel, a vowel whose distinctive feature is a low third formant.

In rhotic accents of English such as General American, vocalic r occurs in words like "butter" and "church". In rhotic accents of Mandarin Chinese such as accents in Beijing, Tianjin, most of Hebei province, Eastern Inner Mongolia and the three Northeastern provinces, vocalic r occurs as a diminitive endings to nouns (er), past tense indicative (le) as well as the middle syllables of compound words consist of 3 or more syllables, e.g. restaurant 'Gou Bu Li' in Tianjin.

Vocalic R in Sanskrit

The ancient Indian language Sanskrit possessed short and long versions of a vowel sound often referred to as "vocalic r".cite book
first=Thomas
last=Burrow
title=The Sanskrit Language
isbn=8120817672
pages=105
publisher=Motilal Banarsidass
location=Delhi
year=2001
edition=1st Indian edition
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=cWDhKTj1SBYC&pg=PA105&vq=%22only+indo-iranian+preserved+the+vocalic+r%22&dq=%22the+sanskrit+language%22&as_brr=3&sig=tWC0-7T2_M-2CdCTFUBARpM_y2U] It is represented in Devanagari by ऋ (short form) and ॠ (long form), and in IAST transliteration by Unicode|ṛ (short form) and Unicode|ṝ (long form), and is thought to correspond to original vocalic "l" or "r" in Proto-Indo-European. The grammarian Unicode|Pāṇini classified this vowel as retroflexcitation
last=Deshpande
first=Madhav M.
title=Sanskrit & Prakrit: Sociolinguistic Issues
isbn=8120811364
publisher=Motilal Banarsidass
location=Delhi
contribution=Genesis of Rgvedic Retroflexion
pages=178
date=1993
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NDrqaELkKTEC&pg=PA178&vq=%22retroflexion+in+the+Pratisakhyas%22&dq=%22Sanskrit+and+Prakrit%22&sig=iIG6bqgHkJEG3cPM2qq3KIVv7qc] and its pronunciation is thought to have been a retroflex approximant IPA| [ɻ] in classical Sanskrit (c. 500 BC). Earlier grammarians classified its sound in the Vedic period as velar. When Sanskrit words containing this sound are borrowed into modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi or Nepali its pronunciation changes to IPA| [ɾɪ] (short form) or IPA| [ɾiː] (long form), [citation
pages=257
title=The Indo-Aryan Languages
isbn=0700711309
editor-first=George
editor-last=Cardona
editor2-first=Dhanesh
editor2-last=Jain
publisher=Routledge
location=New York
date=2003
contribution=Sanskrit
first=George
last=Cardona
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jPR2OlbTbdkC&pg=PA257&vq=%22vocalic+r%22&dq=The+Indo-Aryan+Languages&as_brr=3&sig=XtYDUH2NNqBVf--BFPNYh2b2o0c] leading to forms such as "Krishna" for "Unicode|Kṛṣṇa" and "Rigveda" for "Unicode|ṛgveda", a pronunciation that is also prevalent among contemporary pandits. [cite book
first=Michael
last=Coulson
coauthors=Richard F Gombrich, James Benson
title=Sanskrit
publisher=Contemporary Books
location=Chicago
year=2006
pages=5
isbn=0071426663]

R-colored vowel

A vowel may have either the tip or blade of the tongue turned up during at least part of the articulation of the vowel (a retroflex articulation) or with the tip of the tongue down and the back of the tongue bunched. Both articulations produce basically the same auditory effect, a lowering in frequency of the third formant. Although they are rarely attested, they occur in some non-standard varieties of Dutch and in a number of rhotic accents of English like General American. The English vowel may be analyzed phonemically as an underlying IPA|/ər/ rather than a syllabic consonant.

Considering the different word positions--initial, medial and final--it has been suggested there are at least 21 distinct allophones of IPA|/r/ in English. [Ristuccia, C.L. , Gilbert, D.W. & Ristuccia, J.E. (2005) "The Entire World of R Book of Elicitation Techniques", [http://www.sayitright.org/ET.html 'Say It Right'] : Tybee Island, GA ISBN 0-9760490-7-4.]

English spelling

The r-colored vowels of General American are written with vowel-r digraphs. Any vowel can be used::Stressed IPA| [ɝ] : "hearse", "assert", "mirth", "work", "turkey", "myrtle":Unstressed IPA| [ɚ] : "standard", "dinner", "Lincolnshire", "editor", "measure", "martyr"

An example of an r-colored vowel written as a vowel "following" "r" can be found in the word "iron" IPA| [ˈaɪɚn] .

In singing

Many vocalists who would normally speak English with r-colored vowels will replace them with their non-rhotic equivalents when singing in English.Fact|date=September 2008 Exceptions include many Irish singers, along with many performers of Country music.

peech disorders

In English, pronunciation of /r/ is difficult, and is one of the most frequently misproduced sounds for a number of reasons including:
* It can be either consonantal or vocalic;
* There is no single defined way to produce the sound either by manner or place of articulation;
* It tends to be a later developing sound; and
* Correct pronunciation is not dependent upon spelling. [Curtis, J.F.& Hardy, J.C. (1959) A phonetic study of misarticulation of /r/. "Journal of Speech and Hearing Research", 2 (3), 244-257.]

Vocalic /r/ evaluation and treatment is most commonly made by a speech-language pathologist.

Other examples

In Mandarin Chinese, the rhotacized ending of some words is the prime way by which to distinguish speakers of Beijing dialect from those of other forms of Mandarin. Mandarin speakers call this phenomenon Erhua. In many words, "-r" suffix is added to indicate some meaning changes. In simplified written Chinese, the change is indicated with the suffix 儿 (If the word ends in a nasal, the final consonant is lost and the vowel becomes nasalized if what is lost is a nasal velar).

In the 1930s the Dravidian language Badaga had two degrees of rhoticity among all five of its vowels, but few speakers maintain the distinction today, and then only in one or two vowels. An example is non-rhotic IPA| [be] "mouth," slightly rhotacized ("half retroflexed") IPA| [be˞] "bangle," and fully rhotacized ("fully retroflexed") IPA| [be˞˞] "crop."

In Czech the vocalic r is present in many common words and together with l as a nucleus forms the phonetically famous sentence _cs. "Strč prst skrz krk!" (Czech for "Stick a finger through your throat!"), seemingly without vowels.

Notes

References

* Aungst, L.F. & Frick, J.V. (1964) Auditory discrimination ability and consistency of articulation of /r/. "Journal of Speech and Hearing Research", 29, 76-85.
* Curtis, J.F.& Hardy, J.C. (1959) A phonetic study of misarticulation of /r/. "Journal of Speech and Hearing Research", 2 (3), 244-257.
* Ristuccia, Christine. (2002) [http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/common/EditorialSearch/AViewer.aspx?AN=SP_02sep30_spp21.html&AD=09-30-2002 'Phonologic strategy for /r/ remediation.'] "Advance for Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists", 39, 21.
*cite book | author=Ristuccia, C.L. , Gilbert, D.W. & Ristuccia, J.E.| title= [http://www.sayitright.org/ET.html "The Entire World of R Book of Elicitation Techniques"] | location=Tybee Island, GA | publisher= [http://www.sayitright.org/EntireWorldofR.html 'Say It Right'] | year=2005|id=ISBN 0-9760490-7-4

ee also

*List of phonetics topics
*Linking R
*Rhotic consonant
* Syllabic consonant