"R-Sounds"

Examples: 1. Czech, 2. Sindhi, 3. Catalan, 4. German

  1. Czech

    Contrasts two trills: a “normal” alveolar apical trill, and a (probably) laminal trill with a much greater tendency to frication and devoicing. Following the IPA handbook, p.71, the latter is transcribed [r̝].

    r u k a ("hand")

    r̝ ɛ k a ("river")

  2. Sindhi

    Contrasts alveolar tap (also occurring as trill) with flap (breathy flap is also found)

    tap/trill

    flap

    r o l u ("wanderer")

    pʰ o ɽ o ("sore (noun)")

    ɠ ə r o ("heavy")

    gʰ o ɽ o ("horse (noun)")

  3. Catalan

    Contrasts tap and trill

    tap

    trill

    s ɛ ɾ a("wax")

    s ɛ r a("saw (noun)")

  4. German

    When realised at the uvular place of articulation, the German r-sound can include the following variants (see IPA handbook, p. 87): uvular trill, voiced uvular fricative, uvular approximant, voiceless uvular fricative.

    reisse

    Rasse

    		 slight trill; also weak voiced frication in “Rasse”

    verreisen

    		 weak voicing, with some frication

    Herren

    reise

    		 approximant, with regular voicing throughout

    trat

    treten

    		 voiceless with strong frication

    5. In addition, there are contexts (especially postvocalically and word-finally) where /r/ vocalizes completely to [ɐ]: e.g words like “hart”, “Ohr”, “besser”.