Is "R" a Vowel? | Otherwords

We all know that the vowels are A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y... But the way linguists define vowels may mean R qualifies as well!
Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and fınds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fıelds of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human.
Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
Writer: Andrew Matthews
Producer: Katie Graham
Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews
Executive Producer: Amanda Fox
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Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
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Otherwords is produced by Spotzen for PBS.
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[@sophiejones3554]

My mother even witnessed a court case that hung on regional pronunciations of R. There was a woman who was being brought in on DUI charges. She was from Western Massachusetts, the police officer was from Boston. Now, in the western part of the state the 'r' has remained quite hard despite the proximity to Boston. One of the tests for drunkenness of course, is to recite the alphabet backwards. It was in the wee hours of the morning, and this woman was nervous talking to a cop. She started with Z, Y, X, etc and then when she got to S she paused. The cop, thinking to be generous, prompted her with the sound of the next the letter: you know..."ahhh!" The poor woman didn't know what this cop was doing, which must have only made her more nervous: so she failed to finish reciting the alphabet. The jury ended up concluding that she was probably just tired and let her off the DUI charge.

[@heavensophia9382]

I can't cite the alphabet backwards sober, how the Hell am I supposed to do it drunk?😏JK, I don't drink. *Edit:* I actually bothered to try it and realized I actually can do it backward. Ironically, I guess I'm no longer in the can't even do it sober club.

[@helgenlane]

Can sober people actually complete this test? Because I certainly can't.

[@Crispy_Bee]

@@NecessaryTruths I've often heard that the field sobriety test is pretty useless. If you're tired, stressed, scared or in any other state of heightened emotions it's easy to fail. Better to take a breathalyser instead and if that doesn't work a blood sample is the safest solution anyway. I may be wrong but there's also the issue of whether a cop is certified to instruct you on and guide you through a FSB in the first place and whether he/she is able to determine the results. Without further knowledge of your specific medical history, current state of mind etc it's very hard to interpret some minor issues. Of course that's why video evidence is always necessary and helpful - for both sides.

[@JustAnotherPerson4U]

You're a little f***ed if you're dyslexic and sober.

[@Richard_Nickerson]

Western Massachusetts is NOT in proximity to Boston. That's why. I live about an hour South of Boston and people don't have the accent here, but Western Mass is 2-4 hours away from Boston. You probably interact more with people from Connecticut and New York out there than people from Boston. Proximity? Nah.

[@UubTay]

I can't believe you managed to pack so much phonetics in 7 min while also keeping it fairly easy to understand. On top of that, it's also a a really fun video!

[@bacondoesthings123]

Yes! The rhotic schwa! Never heard anyone talk about this phoneme before until now!

[@ruaoneill9050]

100% agree

[@myowncomputerstuff]

Glad I'm not the only one. Usually videos like these leave me with a "well aktualyyy" moment, but this really gave context to all the major cases and exceptions without straying too far from the topic.

[@solarnaut]

I, too, was blown away 'aight from the st'ahhht ! The drawings showing where the sounds are formed ! The host singing vowels between informative blurbs ! The historic examples feathered in ! . . . and then : PBS ... Oh ! You folks have done it again ! B-)

[@kitkat47chrysalis95]

"furthermore the Phoenicians must be destroyed" Cato the elder.

[@drottercat]

When I was in grade school, many years ago in Serbia, the teacher told us flat out that R was a sound between a vowel and consonant. She called it sonant. It was no surprise to anyone, knowing common words like vrh (peak), prst (finger), and trg (square), in which the R functions like a vowel.

[@pauljordan4452]

I'm half Czech and you're probably right.

[@SpeechyThings]

I am a speech-language pathologist who specializes in remediating the R sound and this was FASCINATING! Thanks so much for a great video! I'll definitely share it with my audience.

[@sunny_muffins]

I had to learn 5 languages as a teenager and the letter "R" was always my archenemy. Now I know that it had a reason...

[@david2869]

The question is: Was it your archenemy, yah ahchenemy, yourrr arrrchenemy, yourrl arrrlchenemy, or youd adchenemy?

[@atullondhe8432]

@@david2869 Rrright! : )

[@robinbaylor2672]

And my speech therapist was trying to get me to do “none of the above”, touching the back of my tongue to my palate.

[@Sukuna8383]

Cool, what languages?

[@sunny_muffins]

@@Sukuna8383 The usual five: Italian, Spanish, French, German & English :)

[@PokhrajRoy.]

I just love how Katharine Hepburn is a gift to linguistic studies.

[@eddierayvanlynch6133]

Truly a dahling 😉

[@justinwatson1510]

A gift to humanity.

[@andrewgates8158]

What about Cary Grant?

[@bobbystclaire]

She was a New Englander Lakeview is reflected in Her speech patterns

[@AlexanderJansen]

As an undergrad this would have been useful. As a current master student this is comfort entertainment to confirm that I at least know something

[@hnybee113]

As a classically trained singer. "R" s were the easiest way for me to transition without a break from chest to head voice. This segment TOTALLY confirmed why Rs are so important for singers singing correctly. Wow soooo cool.

[@Mohamed-om2xv]

In Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, even an R that closes off the vocal tract can function as a vowel - like in the name Tvrtko or the word smrt!

[@Rhaifha]

I'm in a completely different country (the Netherlands) and I distinctly remember being in a choir as a kid and being told I needed to "properly pronounce my Rs" (aka trill them) because "the dropped R made me sound like farmers kid". The dropped R is standard in my regional accent, which is frowned upon for being too rural.

[@jaimel88]

If I remember correctly, there are 3 ways to pronounce R in Dutch, right? Might've seen a video where a Dutch guy was explaining that his full name Rogier (Something) uses all 3 pronunciations of R.

[@Cassadinegirlaz]

I adore this show

[@galvaton10000]

I adohh this show

[@youlookbananas]

I was just thinking the same. The singing bits got me 🤣

[@kartickshirur9648]

This is the first time I’m watching this series. Loved it. Now I understand why my kids struggle with pronouncing the letter ‘R’. And Erica is so talented; she moves seamlessly between accents and pronunciations. Kudos.

[@misikibharadwaz4857]

An interesting fact: the alphabets of most Indian languages are phonetic and are divided into two parts, the first with all the vowels and the second with all the consonants. In the vowel section of the alphabet, there are 2 letters that approximate the American r (i.e. one of the r's is closer to the mouth opening, the other farther back), meeting up to the requirements for a vowel, hence in the vowel section. Of course, in most Indian languages, there is also a "rolling" r, which is in the consonants section. These are, however, distinct sounds and therefore distinct letters, as the languages are phonetic. Having this knowledge, the title of this video intrigued me, and I wanted to see if the video was about this too.

[@kailash4799]

Thanks for ths, I came scrolling too far down to see of anyone mentioned the Sanskrit ऋ as a vowel.

[@antareepgogoi6065]

It’s disappointing that she wouldn’t even mention it in the video.

[@kailash4799]

@@antareepgogoi6065 story of my life lol. There have been several such videos on this channel and many other where when any universal topic is discussed India is conspicuously absent entirely.

[@Dhruv-Kumar]

​@@kailash4799so you mean ऋ is pronounced like american r. Like in ca*r* ड़ is probably rolled r And र is alveolar flap But I never knew the correct pronounciation of ऋ. If you speak ऋ like american r then people will assume you're trying to copy foreigner accent.

[@kailash4799]

@@Dhruv-Kumar unfortunately, the pronounciation you are referring here applies only to Hindi. Sanskrit uses ऋ as halfway to ri and ru. Examples are Krishna, Rishi, Rithu. All are correct even when spelt ru instead of ri.

[@iRedEarth]

I remember Daphne on Frasier attempting an American accent. Daphne: "I don't know what to do with my Rs." Frasier: "Try hauling it out of here." *Bonus quote* Daphne: "I'm trying my American." Frasier: "You're certainly trying THIS American."

[@david2869]

Daphne: "Sure."

[@AdventuresAwait123]

Love me some Frasier haha

[@closethockeyfan5284]

Yep, anytime an Englishman insists the English speak proper English, simply remind them R is a consonant and A is a vowel.

[@darktimesatrockymountainhi4046]

Wow, that’s great pun!!

[@Treblaine]

Niles: "I think I have an idea what to do with your R's" Frasier: "Niles!"

[@michaelkeefer1471]

That line from Philadelphia Story is 'mid Atlantic' and was taught by language coaches to actors of the time.

[@robinhahnsopran]

Opera singer and therefore sound-production-nerd here. This is one of the most fascinating videos I've seen on KZbin in recent memory! I teach some of this stuff - how to produce different Rs in different languages, for example - but didn't know how the rhotic R came to Canada, as well as some of the other history of this weird letter. Love this!

[@YoungMule]

It’s so interesting that we don’t need to be formally taught ANY of this and just kind of pick it up naturally yet hearing it explained with such detailed is very enlightening

[@dalebewan]

In the deep south of New Zealand, we have a rhotic R, unlike the rest of the country. However, it's quite different to the US rhotic R, being more akin to the sound in Scots. People from the rest of the country love asking us to say "Bert is wearing a dirty shirt". Unfortunately, growing up with this R has quite ruined me for other languages. I have a *lot* of trouble pulling off any other kind of R sound, so despite my love of languages, I always give myself away as a foreigner as soon as this letter pops up.

[@lolly9804]

I always thought it sounded interesting, since the rest of New Zealand's accent is kinda bad. Why does everything have to sound like a question, for one.

[@KwanLowe]

German "R" was difficult for me also. Having to unlearn the Spanish trill made it worse and it took a couple years before I could even discern the different sounds.

[@AndrewMcColl]

@@lolly9804 simple, because we like to be sure when speaking. ;)

[@khayyin359]

I can relate, despite being on almost the other side of the world. I'm from Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest, and I grew up with Spanish as a second language in the home. For some reason, though, I've never managed to get the trilled R. My high school Spanish teacher said listening to my nearly-fluent accent was a pleasant, relaxing experience - right until the R showed up, then it was like a scratch in a record 😅

[@destiny4534]

@@lolly9804 shut you mouth cause u mad new zealand accent way beter than anything u could ever make

[@planclops]

Yay! As a speech-language pathologist, this is so fascinating 😊

[@RaysOfPivot]

As a regular ol' nerd so do i!

[@juliedurnan2364]

Right SLP buddies!!! I have to explain to parents.... /r/ is not just one sound! I

[@illillyillyo]

@@juliedurnan2364 oh man, I don’t 😆 I feel like I can’t explain it properly since there isn’t just one way to make it. How do you typically explain it to a kid that actually gets them to make the sound?

[@thenightjackal8876]

you people

[@echo_z319]

@@thenightjackal8876 ikr💀

[@brasteryakintosh9418]

A little correction. Vowels don't have to be voiced. In Japanese and Korean, unrounded high vowels are devoiced between voiceless consonants or at the end of an utterance after a voiceless consonant. This makes them sound like they aren't pronounced, especially after fricatives, but they are and it's noticeable if you have two similar voiceless consonants next to each other like in "sushi". It's also noticeable with "ki" and sometimes "hi" or "pi" because English speakers tend to subconsciously train themselves to hear devoiced "i" when it doesn't significantly change the pronunciation of the consonant or for "hi", we just can't hear "h" sounds without vowels after them very well

[@emilymann1175]

I always wondered about that, when they say "onegaishimasu" I never hear them pronounce that last "U"

[@brasteryakintosh9418]

@@emilymann1175 Actually, the vowels in "su" and "shi" are debatably omitted in some contexts where they'd otherwise be voiceless. I'd say it's consistently done at the end of utterances. In other cases, it depends on other factors like pitch accent or preceding syllables

[@quasimodoandfievel1871]

"MAKE R A VOWEL!" - scott wozniak

[@sovobor7681]

In czech we have A, E, I, O, U and Y. We also have Ě and half vowels R and L and we have a lot fun with it. For example song "Holka Modrooká" (Blueyed girl). Short, naive text but ideal for rhetorical execises. Just replace all vowels with one ad you get "Halka Madraaká", "Helke Medreeke" or "Hrlkr Mrdrrrkr".

[@DusanPavlicek78]

True 😁 I know the song and that substitution game too but I only ever tried it with vowels (Hilki midriiki nisidivij i pitiki etc. 😁), never an R or an L 😄

[@david2869]

Sort of like the American song "The Name Game". Except we replace the start letter of a name with different ones, for instance "Larry, larry bo-barry, banafana mo-marry, fee fie fo-farry, Larry"

[@Puzzlers100]

Seriously, just stick to the basic example Strč prst skrz krk.

[@garimeragonols]

WeLl AcTuAlLy, Y isn't a seperate vowel, it makes the same sound as I, and Ě also isn't a distinct sound on its own, it either makes /je/ sound, or it softens the consonant before (d, t, n). Except MĚ, for some reason it makes /mňe/ sound, god knows why...

[@chinesespybaby129]

Like "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas"?

[@jakovjurin6855]

In serbo-croatian languages r is sometimes treated like a vowel. For example words like crn, vrt, rt, smrt use it as the vowel.

[@pihungliu35]

Here are some info on the Mandarin Chinese case: the phenomenon is called "兒化" in Chinese, roughly translates to "er"-ification. When written out, the character "兒" is suffixed onto the character indicating the vowel of previous character is a rhotic vowel. An example: 花兒 ("flowers" /hwaɚ/) from 花 /hwa/. (Although there are some times this suffixed 兒 is pronounced separately, like 花兒 as /hwa/ /ɚ/ -- but this is yet another example showing that our R sound is more like a vowel.) When spelling out in pinyin, this is usually indicated by a *suffix* r on the spelling of previous character. This is different from the *prefix* r in the pinyin: that sound is a consonant /ɻ/ that the tongue is touching the palate, while this 兒化 sound didn't have them touching.

[@angkhoapham8209]

so 花兒 is like "more flowers"?

[@merriweathercommenter1931]

那个是traditional吗？我觉个 ”R” 是儿

[@pihungliu35]

@@angkhoapham8209 There's no "more" meaning in this, so that's simply another way of saying "flowers". An example found in the lyric of a song: "我等到*花兒*也謝了" -- "I waited so long even the *flowers* withered away."

[@pihungliu35]

@@merriweathercommenter1931 是，我是用繁體字的

[@BoxStudioExecutive]

@@angkhoapham8209 No, it's just how people from Northern China speak. People from Southern China will not speak in this manner.

[@hagmartm258]

In Portuguese, at least in my accent ( northeast Brazilian btw) the R represents two sounds, an alveolar tap when intervocalic, and a uvular trill/fricative (and sometimes may even be realized as a glottal fricative) when geminated, word initial or before consonants. It is always so interesting to think about how these two variants remained in the language and didn’t merge, and how confusing it might be for non natives to get that there is a distinction

[@Omouja]

I totally agreed, in some regions even exist 3 ways to pronounce it, like the country side that has the rhotic r too. A sentence like "raro como ar" all the r's is pronounced differently.

[@bunniifangz]

having learned Portuguese when I lived in São Paulo state for a while when I was little I use much more of an “h” than a uvular trill

[@kenster8270]

In Danish, an R after a vowel usually functions as a vowel. And it also alters the sound of that preceding vowel by making it sound more "dark" or "low", i.e. that vowel is then pronounced farther back in the mouth/throat.

[@rdklkje13]

I was looking for a comment about the weirdness of the Danish R ‘vowel’! Thank you for such clear wording.

[@kenster8270]

@@rdklkje13 Part of what makes the Danish language so darn charming are tongue twisters such as fyrre tørrere irere badede i Rødovre ("forty drier Irishmen bathed in Rødovre") or gems like otteoghalvfjerdsindstyvende ("seventy-eighth").

[@rdklkje13]

@@kenster8270 He, he, the good old ‘Rødgrød med fløde’ (typical summer dish) and ‘røget ørred’ (smoked trout) are bad enough for most people!

[@CarolinaVecc]

This one has got to be one of my favourite episodes from otherwords! I love this so much, someone give this show an award, please!!! Dr. Erica, thank you! I like to explain the differences between rhotic and non-rhotic English accents to my EFL students so I'm going to be taking a few notes from this video here to show more examples to students from now on. The geopolitical implications of it are particularly interesting and new to me! :)

[@chris2746]

I hadn't thought about this before, but it makes a lot of sense. When writing loan words in Japanese long R sounds are often written instead as an extension of the length of the preceding vowel. For example star (as in movie star) becomes スタ－ (sta-)

[@tovarishcheleonora8542]

It's more likely because there would be a ru syllable. Also the s(u)taa, (yes there is an u what is formed with mouth but not voiced) is easier to pronounce than s(u)tar(u).

[@meatmanek]

I'd say most of the time アー (aa) or ア (a) sound is used to represent the suffix "er" and things that sound like it: - ハンバーガー ("hanbaagaa", hamburger) - ドア ("doa", door) - スマート　("sumaato", smart) But there are a few examples of other vowels getting elongated to stand in for an R sound, notably the オ sound: リポート　("ripooto", report) ボード ("boodo", board) Search for (ɹ) on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_into_Japanese#Table_of_transcription_from_English and it's mostly ア/アー or the previous vowel plus ラ/リ/ル/レ/ロ

[@duckpotat9818]

In the Devanagari script, you'll find 'Ri' listed as a vowel and 'r' listed as a consonant, I was always confused by the redundancy till today. There's also consonants in Marathi, Odia and Punjabi among others that sound somewhere between R and L

[@mmmnnn1052]

ऋ is the letter, also confused me as well

[@knowledgedesk1653]

Yes ऋ and ऌ are vowel in devanagari

[@AI-mg3hy]

I like how the English dropped their Rs at the end of words but then put them where there aren't any Rs in the first place to distinguish vowels that end one word and begin another. To me (west coast American) the dropped R sounds sophisticated and the intrusive R sounds like a street urchin trying to run some scam on you. It's fantastic.

[@jackesioto]

Most non-rhotic accents have intrusive r.

[@carpdog42]

As soon as I saw the topic was R I knew Boston was getting a mention. My wife and I, both Bostonian natives, were discussing this recently and we don't really think its entirely accurate anymore to associate the soft R with Boston as much as it was say 20 years ago. As Boston proper has gentrified and seen a lot of influx from other areas, the accent seems to have softened as people who speak with that accent have been economically pushed out of the area to the north and south, closer to maine/NH and Rhode Island.

[@noracola5285]

I did hear it a lot in homeless shelters in and around Boston, especially from old timers, but that just reinforces what you already said. I'm a transplanted Ohio native (via almost every other part of the country) and I'm doing my best to adopt the accent and keep it alive (j/k I'm not trying at all, it just sort of seeps in little by little, lol)

[@allanrichardson3135]

The Car Talk guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, propagated the old Boston accent across the US and into space from their studios in Cambridge (Our Fair City), MA until around 2012, on “En Pea Ah.”

[@thelocalstumbler]

Not watching these videos all the way through will make you Regret missing out on great content. Never doubt a great lesson and become a true phonetics fanatic!

[@Maple_Siraf]

"Make R a vowel!" - Scott The Woz

[@buckysrevenge]

I knew someone with the surname Vrbsky, so it makes sense R could be considered a vowel considering how it's used and sounds

[@kaktus8669]

Also consider the Croatian island of Krk

[@vincelamb4063]

And Brkini in Slovenia.

[@heavenlydusk]

I can't I can't say any of these European hullabaloos

[@MartinMCade]

I knew someone once whose surname was "Hricko", but the original spelling was something like "Hryzcko." Which is the vowel, y or r? Or both?

[@bourbon2242]

Zbigniew Brzezinski

[@rkozakand]

You completely missed that R is used as a vowel in several of the Slavic Languages, like Serbo-Croatian, trg, krv, etc. Also found in Slovak and Czech. We trill the r, but can still use it as a vowel. Thus the famous Czech tongue twister 'Strč prst skrz krk'.

[@cmyk8964]

The Shavian alphabet (a phonemic spelling reform) has two letters that correspond to R: • “𐑮”, the consonant “r” in “run”, and • “𐑼”, the vowel “arr” in “arrange”, which is a combination of “𐑩”, the “a” in “about” plus “𐑮”. Other vowels have versions combined with “𐑮”, like 𐑓𐑭𐑞𐑼 (father) vs. 𐑓𐑸𐑞𐑼 (farther) and 𐑕𐑷𐑕 (sauce) vs. 𐑕𐑹𐑕 (source).

[@rmdodsonbills]

Some folks make (gentle) fun of the Czech language as being short on vowels, but (as I understand it) that's in part because in Czech, is a semivowel the way is in English.

[@LoganCrazyBoy]

Some accents of Portuguese and Spanish also have that rhotic R, like the Paraguayan and inner Brazilian one. Makes pronouncing English words much easier, and makes pronouncing words from other languages incredibly hard. Some of us straight up don't know how to trill the R.

[@boghund]

​@@Omoujathe sound in the words you mentioned isn't a trill, it's a flap

[@Omouja]

@@boghund true, my mistake. I learned that this sound was called "rolled R", so I mistake trilled R with flap R

[@miketaylor5088]

I still remember, when the teacher went around the class asking everyone to roll their Rs, I failed miserably. He looked at me rather sadly and said "Ah, the London R" and moved on. Fortunately this scar has not doomed me to an unhappy life.

[@sierranicholes6712]

that's so interesting!!! i wonder how that came about.

[@gbear1005]

You forgot them occasional Y

[@AACoCo0506]

This was a fantastic episode. Thanks as always for providing such high quality content!

[@turrlerabbit4884]

The little song breaks in between are great 🤣 thank you for yet another fantastic episode of Otherwords :)

[@assafrutenberg]

This series is now one of my favorite. Your presentation and easeful delivery are engaging, wonderfully entertaining, and very informative. Thank you.

[@joshm8898]

babe wake up new otherwords episode dropped!!

[@mattpentecost3363]

I'm an early childhood music teacher and every time we're learning a song in another language I love getting to talk about how weird R is, and how English is about the only language that uses that hard R sound. This video is definitely making an appearance the next time a spanish or french song comes up.

[@gunjfur8633]

Theres nothing hard about the English R

[@vidareggum6118]

That is factually incorrect. English is far from "about the only language that uses a hard R sound".

[@gunjfur8633]

@@vidareggum6118 What do you two mean by "hard R"?

[@rogerwilco2]

Try some Dutch next time.

[@danidejaneiro8378]

As mentioned in the video, Mandarin has the alveolar approximant (English R). Also, speakers of Brazilian Portuguese from rural São Paulo have this R. Someone else also mentioned Dutch. I believe it also exists in Yoruba.

[@greubermeister2]

Honestly, otherwords is one of my favorite series on youtube, many thanks!

[@frankhooper7871]

I was actually taught (California 1950s) that the vowels were: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y and w. Including the American variety of r makes sense to me though. Having now lived in England for 50 years, my pronunciation has become less rhotic, but if I consciously pronounce words like bird or girl, I do hear the -ir- more as a simple vowel sound; not even a diphthong.

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

1:15 Spitting bars, doc!

[@youremakingprogress144]

I love this series so much. I learn so much with every episode, and Dr. Brozovsky presents the material in such fun, interesting ways.

[@JosephDavies]

I know you covered a lot here, but I'm actually surprised the Intrusive R didn't get a mention given its close connection to vowels! As a non-linguist, I found it to be a pretty interesting topic once I figured out what was going on in dialects that do this.

[@safaiaryu12]

This was fascinating, and I love how well you do accents to illustrate! Thank you!

[@NT-cp3cl]

What an amazing video! As a non-native speaker whenever I try to do a native accent, it's always the r(and sometimes 'p') sound that trips me up. I especially loved your singing and acting bits. The topic, contents, explanation, and your expressions are always interesting. I wish we could see your new videos every week

[@SolomonUcko]

If you're willing to share, what's your native language? What are the closest sounds to R and P in it?

[@NT-cp3cl]

@@SolomonUcko It's Gujarati, an Indian language

[@NorthernChimp]

@@NT-cp3cl The English p is generally ફ, rather than પ .

[@raymondrivera8099]

Many people have a hard time pronouncing the last name 'Rivera' in English. But in Spanish it rolls off the tongue with ease. It's the opposite when it comes to my first name. It's easy for an English speaker to pronounce 'Raymond' but Spanish speakers have a difficult time with it. Many times they just say 'Raymundo' and honestly I just go with it because it's exhausting trying to help them pronounce it.

[@shivaay7217]

I'm Sanskrit (and Hindi) there's a vowel ‌‌ ऋ (Rhi) and Consonant र (Ra). Its amazing how ancient yet scientific Devnagari Script is! 💛

[@sleipnir8380]

i needed speech therapy when i was a kid. most sounds i picked up by first grade, but R followed me until fifth. nothing stopped me from talking a ton but it did take practice to understand me, so i’ve heard. other kids used to ask me if i was british (i am east coast usa) and for the life of me i could not say “race car”. it wasn’t until i was 10 or so and the speech therapist showed me xrays of tongues and taught me to “pull back the corners” of my tongue to touch my molars that it clicked! everyone except her had been trying to teach me the “tap” and “tril”. if im really tired or jittery, i still slip up

[@AlexisBabayan]

I was the same way as a kid! (native English speaker, West Coast USA, yet often people thought I had an "accent.") I was also pulled out of class to meet with a speech therapist a couple of times a week. I never got to see X-rays of tongues, though! I still had "R" issues through sixth grade or so- at least for me, "R"s in the middles of words were much more difficult to pronounce than those at the beginnings. My grandmother's name was Aurora, which was a real tongue-twister to say when I was small! (Woah-wa?)

[@kevincraig9704]

I always love finding that you've released a new video. I know I'm going to learn something new and interesting, so I can't really say this one is special. Each one is special. Keep up the good work.

[@WDCallahan]

Yes. Phonetically speaking, the general American R sound is a vowel. I read that years ago in a book when I was learning Esperanto. I can't wait to see what this says about it.

[@kyburton]

Amazing! I noticed this years ago inside my own mouth, that R acted more like a vowel than a consonant, and this video answered all my questions and then some. Thanks again, Otherwords team. You never miss! One more fun thing is the way rhotic R acts as a glide between vowels in standard British English where most American speakers would put a glottal stop. It really is a beautiful and versatile sound.

[@sock756]

This is spectacular and woefully underrated content. Some of the most insightful and compelling things I've learned in a while. And delightful to watch.

[@Rahru]

Portuguese also has a strong R that I think is more easily associated with arabic (and maybe german?). It will show up whenever R is the first letter of a word, when it's doubled (carro) and when it follows some other consonants in certain situations (genro or guelra, but not litro, crime or pronome). The first-letter-R will sometimes be pronounced as a trill, but I tend to associate it with a posh and/or old-timey way of saying this type of R.

[@luisespineira9882]

This is so fascinating how the letter R pronunciation varies from region to region for English. BTW, great singing Dr. Erica.

[@kaktus8669]

Funny that you used a German castle when you talked about medieval English pronunciation. The castle shown at 4:24 is the Marksburg in Rhineland-Palatinate.

[@erictaylor5462]

What was used in old movies was the Trans/mid-Atlantic accent, and it was created as a sort of counterpart to the English "Received Pronunciation" It was meant to be a "generic" American accent that was a hybrid American-English accent. It is not a naturally evolved accent.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

This was such a fun video as always! ‘R’ is truly the key to understanding speech patterns.

[@SadigR]

My parents are Brazilian [ɾ], and I'm a self-taught English speaker [ɹ]; my first language is Hebrew [ʁ]. They didn't speak Portuguese with me, but my mom and my grandparents still roll their Rs, yet it's still impossible for me to do. American r is a lot easier for me.

[@aldalab]

R has a lot different sounds in Brazilian Portuguese depending on the position of it. and different allophones as well.

[@AlexanderChilds]

15:15 Almost correct. While it was becoming somewhat fashionable, that evidence from "old films from the period" was actually a trained film accent called the "Transatlantic" or "Mid-Atlantic" accent, used almost exclusively for films; it was not because it was becoming fashionable. It is believed to have been due to the poor quality of microphones used, so words needed to be enunciated clearly so the listeners could understand them. It was used in radios for a "broadcasting voice" and on TV/Films. It stopped being taught because technology got better, we were able to drop microphones closer to people off-camera, and they could pick-up sounds more clearly, so they didn't need to teach the accent anymore.

[@grf15]

I could listen to her forever. Her explanations are always so clear and understandable. I really enjoy her sense of humor and even her singing.

[@Quietloud]

When I was learning Spanish and lived in Colombia, they clocked that I spoke French very quickly because of my Rs! I was making a reservation and they ended the call with a "À tout à l'heure!" 😆

[@LearnRunes]

In some English dialects, "L" can be realised as the vowels [ɤ̯], [o], or [ʊ]. Do you have a video on that too?

[@TheyCallMeNewb]

Well this was an effervescent episode! That vowel-singing and those accents were very much on point.

[@ruaoneill9050]

Definitely going to use parts of this video in my ESL classes when it comes to pronunciation! Thank you for making my job easier!!!! I love this channel so much! Word Nerds 4 ever!!!!

[@tom_something]

I've long argued that R is a vowel in the typical western pronunciation of the word "turtle". People often retort that the schwa before the R sound is the true vowel. I ask "what schwa sound", and then they usually pronounce the word "turtle" very slowly and inject a long schwa sound that doesn't match how a human being pronounces that word. "T-uuuhhhhhhh-rr-d-uuuhhhhhhhh-lll". I'd only pronounce it that way if I had an ice cube in my mouth.

[@CaraTheStrange]

I’m 18 and i still cant pronounce r properly, i can say r but not the normal way. Words like horror are especially difficult for me. Im afrikaans tho so we see not being able to pronounce r and rather rolling all your r’s as a cute thing and call it brei (directly translated that would be knitting)

[@jeanne-marie8196]

Gosh, I just love these videos! As a New Yawka, My grandfather always put “erl” in his car. While my mother was pregnant with me, she decided to name me Joyce, her Irish grandmother’s maiden name. Feeling she was honoring his family, she told her father that would be the name if I were a girl. “Ahhhh, Jers. That would be a fine name.” Needless to say, my name is not Joyce.

[@samielkhayri9272]

I love watching your videos. Informative and entertaining all at once. :)

[@T33K3SS3LCH3N]

Speaking German, English and Japanese it really is the most stand-out letter between the three. It seems like almost every language has a unique "R". For German speakers it's the hardest English letter to pronounce (alongside "th"), and even English speakers who are 99% fluent in German are usually very easy to hear because of this one difference. The Japanese "R" is also challenging for many Europeans , but the reverse is even harder (and funnier) as Japanese speakers try to guess where to say "R" and where "L" x)

[@danielcarroll3358]

In my German class I pointed out the different pronunciations of "butter" in American, German and British. The -er in the former being rhotic and the latter two being non-rhotic with a Tiefschwa (ɐ).

[@WGGplant]

Absolutely Whenever I try to speak Japanese I end up using the Spanish r instead. It's a lot easier, and most Americans are familiar with it. It's what we typically default to for softer r sounds, whether it's correct or not. And it usually ends up sounding very strange. I just started learning German, and I always think to myself "pretend you're British". It's pretty easy to get a hold of pronouncing German sounds though. Most German speakers are fluent in English as well, and you can learn a lot about how Germans speak by their accents when they speak English.

[@david2869]

@@WGGplant Is there any real difference between the Mexican Spanish "r" and the Japanese "ra" (or "re" or "ru" or "ri" or "ro")? Japanese certainly doesn't have "rr", but I haven't noticed any difference between the "r" sounds. The Spanish "l" on the other hand, is different. For instance, the Japanese name "Kirara". I would pronounce that name exactly the same in Japanese or in Spanish. However, translating to English you could also spell it "Kilala" which sounds different in Japanese (but the same as Kirara), English, and Spanish.

[@WGGplant]

@@david2869 its a little further back. spanish r is a flick closer to the front of ur mouth, and is therefore easier to make in fluent conversation at least thats what everyone tells me. ive been told my japanese r sounds "empty". i dont rly get it, but that's what ive been told

[@WGGplant]

@@david2869 its a little further back. spanish r is a flick closer to the front of ur mouth, and is therefore easier to make in fluent conversation. i think its why japanese ppl tend to mix up their r's and l's sound, in english, while spanish speakers dont. at least thats what everyone tells me. ive been told my japanese r sounds "empty". i dont rly get it, but that's what ive been told

[@LeJuice]

The differences between English dialects are extremely interesting! I hope to see more on the topic

[@sierranicholes6712]

this also notes something interesting that i had never noticed until taking phonetics classes - "R" as in red, aura, etc. is different from "R"'s role in bird, lower, fervor, etc. the former, to me, is a consonant for sure, whereas the latter is the vowel version. super interesting.

[@bradkindley]

Just wondering where you're from or where it is you are learning English? In Canada and probably 70% of the US "R" only has one sound. Just hard R. In the US it's just some of the Southern States and Boston where they pronounce a lot of stuff with a big accent. But for most of us in Canada and US all those other words you mentioned, the R sound would be exactly the same.

[@peterwerrenrath1112]

My grandfather, Reinald Werrenrath, was a popular singer in the early part of the last century. Recorded hundreds of RCA Victor albums. He was famous for rolling his R's. Here are a couple of examples: Star Spangled Banner: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6avlIBpbtlqfNE Rose Of My Heart kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4qyYpKurKZ7h9E Peter Werrenrath

[@AngryKittens]

Seeing the visualizations of the tongue movements, I just had a eureka moment on why our languages in the Philippines sometimes use (or used) R as an allophone of either D or L. They tongue movements are actually very similar.

[@emcustard]

It's also interesting to see how R had been added back into words where it isn't. Like Australian and English "No" is often pronounced like "nawr"

[@atullondhe8432]

What a brilliant piece of pedagogy! To absolutely mangle Churchill: "Never have so few minutes, taught so much to so many!"

[@strider_hiryu850]

you have no idea how validating this is! since about mid-January i've been thinking "hey! R sounds a lot more like a vowel than a consonant. it's kinda like a pseudo-vowel!"

[@sakurapablo671]

That’s why Japan has that weird format with the R/L formatting of pronouncing the word.

[@Kadaspala]

Japanese R/L pronunciation is actually entirely different than any other in this video, as far as I can tell. Though it's closest to the Spanish.

[@papaicebreakerii8180]

@@Kadaspala that L/R thing actually does happen in Spanish in the Caribbean and in Andalucía. The sounds get swapped all the time

[@dalubwikaan161]

Well, this info needs to spread all through the internet.

[@pipe2devnull]

I’m very impressed by the hosts versatility with ‘r’.

[@pdzombie1906]

Well, now I need a karaoke session with Dr. B for every episode!!

[@FrozenCappucino]

I wish I found these videos while I was still studying linguistics.

[@thats3geese]

I love Otherwords as a series. It gives me "at home from school sick" TV, except it's my favourite topic and really interesting.

[@defscanvas7633]

I thought the whole concert bit was a bit extra initially, but when you used it to showcase the r sound i realized how effective it actually was at explaining 😂 another great video as always, otherwords!

[@PalomaVita]

I also speak French, Spanish and German and I teach French as a second language so this is absolutely fascinating! And you made this so much fun to watch!

[@user-dp4ui4yq9p]

We learned in school that R is half vocal (Im from Serbia) In Serbian R is commonly a vocal ( like in words Grb, Srb, smrznuto, krc)Here are some examples of words that Anglo-saxons couldnt pronounce and simply addeed a vocal before R to make it easier. Thorn - Trn, Mlin - Mill Crush - Krš Prdi - Fart Vrtlog - Vortex Mrz - Freeze All these words have same meaning in English and Serbian

[@lbjcb5]

Great episode!!

[@gabrielcalderaro1439]

this video was absolutely a treat! Thank you so much for the awesome content!!!

[@chenoaholdstock3507]

From SA - because many people speak Afrikaans, too, many people (myself included) now use r either as a hard r, or with a trill.

[@HLR4th]

Very helpful. In grad school, a focus of the speech therapy I needed to do was working on my “R”s. I grew up in NY (Long Island) but my grandmother who lived with us (I spent a lot of time with her) was from Ireland- now I can understand the mixed “R” signals! I still have trouble with R- and people still can’t really place my accent (I avoided most of the Long Island accent).

[@KrashyKharma]

Ayo the way you dropped into that NY accent was way too good lol

[@Raffaele6Barbaro]

This opens an argument for how much the "lazied" r contaminates english language as you often hear it used casually as a transitional sound or at the end of words, it's really baffling to me. Great video!

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

I don't know about other viewers, but I genuinely enjoyed seeing (and hearing) Dr. Brozovsky sing. Beautiful voice! Anyways, when I was developing my own speech synthesizer, I noticed that the R phoneme is the only one (in English) that depends on the formant F3. Its peak frequency is very low (for F3), and the sound can't be generated with only F1 and F2. The consonant R has an even lower peak frequency for F3 than the vowel.

[@sksk-bd7yv]

R is such a divider in Swedish too! Ask anyone to say "tre träd" (=three trees), and you will instantly (possibly unwilling) place that person in a certain context. Thank you so much for this video!🎉🎉🎉

[@Mickelraven]

Fun fact: The French style of saying the letter R is considered "wrong" in Finland, and has been dubbed "ärrävika". I know this, because both me and my brother have been bullied in school for saying the letter R using the uvula. The tongue trilling/Spanish way is the correct way of saying R in Finland, but I find it nearly impossible to pull off, which is why I trill the uvula instead, the French way.

[@landcat]

Clever choice skipping over an example of the dropped R in modern black american dialect. But it is incredible how important and culturally significant it is to drop that one R. And you’ve done an unprecedented job of providing all of the context for that here. Incredible video, thank you.

[@killwalker]

Fascinating!