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| History and description of |
| English pronunciation |
|---|
| Historical stages |
| General development |
| Development of vowels |
| Development of consonants |
| Variable features |
| Related topics |
The pronunciation of thephoneme/r/ in theEnglish language has many variations in differentdialects.
Depending on dialect,/r/ has at least the followingallophones in varieties of English around the world:[1]
In most British dialects/r/ islabialized[ɹ̠ʷ] in many positions, as inreed[ɹ̠ʷiːd] andtree[tɹ̠̥ʷiː]; in the latter case, the/t/ may be slightly labialized as well.[5]
In many dialects,/r/ in the cluster/dr/, as indream, is realized as apostalveolar fricative[ɹ̠˔] or less commonlyalveolar[ɹ̝]. In/tr/, as intree, it is avoiceless postalveolar fricative[ɹ̠̊˔] or less commonlyalveolar[ɹ̝̊].[6] In England, while the approximant has become the most common realization,/r/ may still be pronounced as avoiceless tap[ɾ̥] after/θ/ (as inthread).[7] Tap realization of/r/ after/θ/ is also reported in some parts of the United States, particularly Utah.[8]
There are two primary articulations of the approximant/r/:apical (with the tip of the tongue approaching the alveolar ridge or even curled back slightly) anddomal (with a centralized bunching of the tongue known asmolar r or sometimesbunched r orbraced r). These articulations are perceptually indistinguishable and vary idiosyncratically between individuals.[9]Peter Ladefoged wrote: "Many BBC English speakers have the tip of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth in the general location of the alveolar ridge, but many American English speakers simply bunch the body of the tongue up so that it is hard to say where the articulation is".[10] Theextension to the IPA recommends the use of the IPA diacritics for "apical" and "centralized", as in ⟨ɹ̺,ɹ̈⟩, to distinguish apical and domal articulations in transcription.
English accents around the world are frequently characterized as either rhotic or non-rhotic. Most accents in England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are non-rhotic accents, where the historical English phoneme/r/ is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel.
On the other hand, the historical/r/ is pronounced in all contexts in rhotic accents, which are spoken in most of Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Canada, and in some English accents (like in the West Country and some parts of Lancashire and the far north). Thus, a rhotic accent pronouncesmarker as/ˈmɑrkər/, and a non-rhotic accent pronounces the same word as/ˈmɑːkə/. Inrhotic accents, when/r/ is not followed by a vowel phoneme, it generallysurfaces asr-coloring of the preceding vowel or its coda:nurse[nɝs],butter[ˈbʌtɚ].
R-labialization, which should not be confused with the rounding of initial/r/ described above, is a process occurring in certain dialects of English, particularly some varieties ofCockney, in which the/r/ phoneme is realized as alabiodental approximant[ʋ], in contrast to analveolar approximant[ɹ].
The use of labiodental/r/ is commonly stigmatized byprescriptivists. However, its use is growing in many accents ofBritish English.[11] Most speakers who do so are from theSouth-East of England, particularlyLondon.
That has also been reported to be an extremely rare realization of/r/ inNew Zealand English[12] and in the speech of younger speakers ofSingapore English.[13]
The/r/ realization may not always be labiodental sincebilabial realizations have also been reported.[citation needed]
R-labialization leads to pronunciations such as these:
However, the replacement of/r/ by some kind of labial approximant may also occur caused by a type of speech impediment calledrhotacism or derhotacization.