Hello, I am Rajdeep from India. I have some difficulties in pronouncing the Alveolar Trilled R. It is used by some people in Hindi language (One of the national languages of India) but I don’t use it. I use the R which is produced by the touch of tongue behind the upper front teeth. The result is just one ‘r’ sound unlike ‘rrrr’ in Alveolar Trill.
I used to pronounce the Russian R by vibrating my tongue behind the upper front teeth but I realized now that it is to be pronounced near the Alveolar Ridge which I am unable to do.
Can you help me with giving some tips on how to pronounce that Alveolar Trill or is it okay to say the R which I mentioned above?
Is the Uvular Trill okay? Because I can do it quite nicely.
Thank you for reading.
I think any trilled “R” you can make with the tip of your tongue is fine. I’m not quite sure of the sound difference between articulating at the “alveolar ridge” or “behind the front teeth”, as this is pretty much the same place ?
A uvular trill will be understood in Russian; Lenin even spoke like this : ) But is considered as a speech impediment (like “w” instead of “r” in english).
There is of course the extra subtlety of the soft “рь”, to contrast with whichever kind of normal “r” you use for your Russian, though it’s not so important (compared to to say, using correct grammar etc. )
Hi, Rajdeep. For what it´s worth, I agree with Maths–don’t let the way you trill your “r” stop you at this point. If you were using a uvular “r,” that would be less acceptable. But you are right to want to speak as well and clearly as possible. Like you, I’d like to hear what native Russian speakers say about trilling the “r” properly in Russian.
Russian is my native language. But I had problems with this sound in my childhood. My personal way of pronouncing “R” was the most terrible I ever heared. I was 7 years old and it was time to go to school. My mother decided to fix the problem. We came to a specialist called logoped. The logoped found my case very hard and it will take too long time to fix my pronounciation.
First of all I had to say “D” many times like “Dddddddddddddd”.
Than the logoped put a spoon’s holder (not sure I call it correctly in English) between the tongue and the upper teeth. It can be a small stick or whatever similar.
While I was saying “dddddddd” the logoped moved the spoon to outside from my mouth quickly. The main idea is to make the tongue vibrate. Saying “ddddddddd” the tongue comes back to the upper teeth and even a bit higher to the palate what makes it saying “Drrrrrrr” instead.of “Dddddd”.
On my second visit to the specialist the “hardest” problem was completely fixed. We were studying to say “rrrrrrrrrrrrr” without the first “D” sound and without the spoon.
I recommend this method with a spoon. It may help to pronounce the “R” sound like in Russian, Italian, Spanish, etc.
PS. I’d like to be able to pronounce also the “R” sound like they do in French and sometimes in German.
I know at least three ways that Germans pronounce the R, strictly speaking there is no “the German R” : I tend to use two of those, depending on circumstances.
Good, I clearly didn’t read your post as thoroughly as I should have done. Have a go at “Roland der Riese am Rathaus zu Bremen”, a good workout for the either the throat or the tongue - or one could alternate if so inclined. Notice how the ‘r’ in ‘der’ can be swallowed.
I tend to use two of those, depending on circumstances.