Uvular trill

Not to be confused with Alveolar trill.

Uvular trill
ʀ
Image
IPA number	123
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʀ
Unicode (hex)	U+0280
X-SAMPA	R\
Kirshenbaum	r"
Sound

The uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʀ⟩, a small capital ar. This consonant is one of several collectively called guttural R.

Within Europe, the uvular trill seems to have originated in Standard French around the seventeenth century, spreading to standard varieties of German, Danish, as well as in parts of Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish; it is also present in other areas of Europe, but it's not all that clear if such pronunciations are due to French influence. In most cases, varieties have shifted this to a Voiced uvular fricative ([ʁ]). See guttural R for more information.

Features

Features of the uvular trill:

• Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by directing air over the articulator so that it vibrates.
• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
French		carré	[kaʀe]	'square'	Dialectal. More commonly a fricative [ʁ]. See French phonology
Dutch	Northern	rood	[ʀoʊ̯t]	'red'	Some dialects. See Dutch phonology
	North Brabant
English	Northumbrian dialect	red	[ʀed]	'red'	Dialectal "Northumbrian burr", mostly found in eastern Northumberland, declining. See English phonology
German	Standard	Rübe	[ˈʀyːbə]	'turnip'	In free variation with a voiced uvular fricative. See German phonology
Hebrew		ירוק	[jaˈʀok]	'green'	May also be a fricative or approximant. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Occitan	Southern Auvergnat	garçon	[ɡaʀˈsu]	'son'
	Eastern dialects	garric	[ɡaʀi]	'oak'	contrasts with alveolar trill ([ɡari] 'cured')
	Southeastern Limousin	filh	[fʲiʀ]	'son'
	Provençal	parts	[paʀ]	'parts'
Portuguese	European	carro	[ˈkaʀu]	'car'	See Portuguese phonology
Romani	Some dialects	rom	[ʀom]	'man'	Corresponds to /r/ in other dialects.
Sioux	Lakota	ǧí	[ʀí]	'it's brown'	Allophone of /ʁ/ before /i/.
Swedish	Southern Dialects	räv	[ʀɛv]	'fox'	See Swedish phonology

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Ewert, A. (1963), The French Language, London: Faber 
• Grevisse, Maurice; Goosse, André (2008), Le Bon Usage (14th ed.), De Boeck et Larcier 
• Hall, Tracy Alan (1993), "The phonology of German /ʀ/", Phonology 10 (1): 83–105, doi:10.1017/S0952675700001743 
• Martinet, A. (1969), Le Français sans fard, Paris: Presses Universitaires 
• Moulton, W.G. (1952), "Jacob Böhme's uvular r", Journal of English and Germanic philology 51: 83–89 
• Rood, David S.; Taylor, Allan R. (1996), "Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan Language, Part I", Handbook of North American Indians, 17, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 440–482, http://lakxotaiyapi.freecyberzone.com/sk1.htm 
• Trudgill, Peter (1974), "Linguistic change and diffusion: Description and explanation in sociolinguistic dialect", Language in Society 3 (2): 215–246, doi:10.1017/S0047404500004358