Re: Sob, it's true about uvular R


"António Marques" <m.ap@xxxxxxx> a écrit dans le message de news: 42ee95d4$0$10062$a729d347@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Keith Goeringer wrote:

Following up: Two weeks after my uvulectomy, I took a deep breath
and made my first attempt to speak French--and in some cases my "r"
is gone, gone, gone. What have I done to myself?

I can approximate it reasonably well in many cases, and I can say
"pour" and "pire", but then I fail on "pour rire" or "sourire".

[...] There's always the voiced velar fricative... 

I feel for Harlan, but the uvular r and the voiced velar fricative are
probably the 2 sounds I'd regret the less losing the ability to produce.
Maybe he can get around with a voiceless fricative?

heavens, no! this is no substitute for r; why voiceless? he didn't have his vocal cords removed!!
I take it you are not a portuguese with both a front and a back r: but isn't the voiced velar approximant the es. (and pt.?) g in, say, pagar?
what is this unhealthy fascination with that unpleasant sound (back r's), which probably originated as a speech defect and then was aped by snobs to end up as very fashionable.
fr. r is not (usually) a uvular trill; nor a uvular fricative; normally it is a _post_velar fricative; make it velar and you get gh, el. gámma, ar. ghain, hy. ghat, ka. ghan, de. (north, dial.) g in wagen, etc.

--
G. Leo Sahakian
Be kind to animals; they owe you nothing. Let them live in peace, unless
your life is at risk.
http://www.pour-les-animaux.de/. 

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