Pronunciation of English ⟨r⟩

Pronunciation of English r has many variations in different dialects.

Variations of "r"

• Depending on dialect, /r/ has at least the following allophones in varieties of English around the world:
  • postalveolar approximant [ɹ]
  • retroflex approximant [ɻ]
  • labiodental approximant [ʋ]
  • alveolar flap [ɾ]
  • alveolar trill [r]
  • voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] (the Northumbrian burr)
• In most dialects /r/ is labialized [ɹ̠ʷ] in many positions, as in reed [ɹʷiːd] and tree [tɹ̥ʷiː]; in the latter case, the /t/ may be slightly labialized as well.^[1] In General American, it is labialized at the beginning of a word but not at the end. 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) and domal (with a centralized bunching of the tongue known as "molar r" or sometimes "bunched r" or "braced r"). 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".^[2] The distinction is transcribed ⟨ɹ̺⟩ vs ⟨ɹ̈⟩ in the extensions to the IPA but has little or no acoustic or auditory consequence, and may vary idiosyncratically between individuals.^[3] For other realizations of /r/, see below. In non-rhotic accents, such as Received Pronunciation and Australian English, /r/ is subject to the phonotactic constraint that it can only appear before a vowel.
• In some rhotic accents, such as General American, /r/ when not followed by a vowel is realized as an r-coloring of the preceding vowel or its coda: nurse [ˈnɝs], butter [ˈbʌtɚ].

R-labialization

R-labialization is a process occurring in certain dialects of the English language, particularly some varieties of Cockney, in which the /r/ phoneme is realized as a labiodental approximant [ʋ] in contrast to an alveolar approximant [ɹ]. To English speakers who are not used to [ʋ], this sounds nearly indistinguishable from /w/.

Use of labiodental /r/ is commonly stigmatized by prescriptivists. Regardless, the consonant [ʋ] is used in a variety of other languages and is increasing in many accents of British English.^[4] Most speakers doing so are from the southeastern part of the country, particularly in London. It is also occasionally heard in some speakers of Boston and New York City English though more often in an exaggerated parody of these dialects, as famously portrayed by the Looney Tunes character Elmer Fudd.

It has also been reported to be an extremely rare realization of /r/ in New Zealand English.^[5]

The /r/ realization may not always be labiodental: bilabial and velarized labiodental realizations have been reported.

R-labialization leads to pronunciations such as the following:

• red - [ʋɛd]
• ring - [ʋɪŋ]
• rabbit - [ˈʋæbɪt]
• merry Christmas - [mɛʋi ˈkʋɪsmɪs]
• 'Woy' Hodgson^[6]

However, replacement of /r/ by some kind of labial approximant may also occur as symptom of a speech defect, called rhotacism or, more precisely, derhotacization.

R-tapping

R-tapping refers to pronouncing the "r" as a flap intervocalically. This occurs in for many Scottish English speakers.

R-rolling

R-rolling refers to pronouncing the "r" as a trill. This occurs in for some Scottish English speakers.

Rhotic and nonrhotic

Rhotic dialects pronounce /r/ in words like "car" and "cord" whereas nonrhotic ones don't.

Vowel mergers before r

Many dialects have merged certain vowels occurring before historic /r/. For instance, most North Americans merge "Mary", "marry" and "merry".

References

1. Ladefoged 2001, p. 55.
2. Ladefoged, Peter (2001b). Vowels and Consonants. Blackwell. p. 103.
3. Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge. p. 300.
4. Foulkes, Paul, and Gerard J. Docherty. (eds.) (1999). Urban Voices. Arnold
5. Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007), "New Zealand English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (1): 100, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002830
6. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17942091