Alveolar trill

"r (IPA)" redirects here. For the 'r' sound in English red, which we sometimes write it as [r], see Alveolar approximant ([ɹ]).

Alveolar trill
r
Image
IPA number	122
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	r
Unicode (hex)	U+0072
X-SAMPA	r
Kirshenbaum	r<trl>
Sound

The alveolar trill is a consonant. We use it in some spoken languages. International Phonetic Alphabet represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills as ⟨r⟩, and the X-SAMPA symbol of it is r. Usually, we call it the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R. Quite often, we use ⟨r⟩ in phonemic transcriptions (especially those found in dictionaries) of languages like English and German. They have rhotic consonants that are not an alveolar trill. This is because typing the r will be easier in the orthographies of these languages.

In many Indo-European languages, this sound is at least occasionally allophonic with an alveolar tap [ɾ], particularly in unstressed positions. Exceptions to this include Catalan, Spanish, Albanian and some Portuguese dialects, which treat them as separate phonemes.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ашəара	[aʃʷara]	'measure'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		рекӀы	[retʃə]	'crushing'
Afrikaans		rooi	[rɔɪ]	'red'
Albanian		rrush	[ruʃ]	'grape'
Arabic		رأس	[rɑʔs]	'head'	Represented by a <ر>. See Arabic phonology
Armenian		ռումբ	[rumb]	'cannon-ball'
Asturian		xenru	[ʃɵ̃nˈru]	'son-in-law'
Basque		errota	[erot̪a]	'mill'
Catalan		roba	[ˈrɔβə]	'clothes'	Weakly trilled, see Catalan phonology
Czech		chlor	[xlɔ̝ːr]	'chlorine'	May be syllabic. See Czech phonology
Dutch		rood	[roːt]	'red'	Standard pronunciation. Pronunciation of 'r' varies regionally, see Dutch phonology
English	Scottish	curd	[kʌrd]	'curd'	See English phonology
Esperanto		tri	[tri]	'three'
Estonian		narr	[nɑrː]	'fool'
Finnish		purra	[purːɑ]	'to bite'	See Finnish phonology
French	southern France and Corsica	rouge	[ruʒ]	'red'	See Standard and Quebec French phonologies.
	rural Quebec
	African French
German	some dialects	Schmarrn	[ʃmaːrn]	'nonsense'	See German phonology
Greek		χέρια/chéria	[ˈçerja]	'hands'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hindi		घर	[ɡʱər]	'house'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		arra	[ɒrːɒ]	'that way'	See Hungarian phonology
Icelandic		rós	[ˈroːus]	'rose'	See Icelandic phonology
Ilokano		gurruod	[ɡʊˈruʔod]	'thunder'
Italian		terra	[ˈtɛrra]	'earth'	See Italian phonology
Kele		[ⁿrikei]		'leg'
Malay	Standard	arah	[arah]	'direction'
Ngwe	Njoagwi dialect	[lɛ̀rɛ́]		'eye'
Persian		رضا/Reza	[ˈrezɒː]	'Reza'	Allophone of [ɾ] in word-initial positions. See Persian phonology.
Polish		krok	[ˈkrɔk]	'step'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese	Some dialects	carro	[ˈkaru]	'car'	Northern European Portuguese and some Brazilian speakers. Guttural in most dialects. See Portuguese phonology
Russian		играть	[ɪˈɡr̠atʲ]	'to play'	Retracted. See Russian phonology
Scots		wir	[wir]	'our'
Serbo-Croatian		рт/rt	[r̩t]	'cape'	May be syllabic. See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		krk	[kr̩k]	'neck'	May be a tap, particularly when not syllabic
Spanish		perro	[ˈpe̞ro̞]	'dog'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard	rov	[ruːv]	'prey'	See Swedish phonology
Tajik		арра	[ʌrrʌ]	'saw'
Titan		[ⁿrakeiʔin]		'girls'
Ubykh		[bəqˤʼərda]		'to roll around'	See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian		рух	[rux]	'motion'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		Rhagfyr	[ˈr̥aɡvɨr]	'December'	Contrasts voiced and voiceless alveolar trills. See Welsh phonology.
West Frisian		rûp	[rup]	'carterpillar'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	r-ree	[rəˀə]	'habitual-go out'	Underlyingly two sequences of /ɾ/

Voiceless alveolar trill

Some languages have a voiceless alveolar trill. In the normal alveolar trill, the vocal cord vibrates. In voiceless alveolar trill, the vocal cord does not vibrate. We don't often use voiceless alveolar trill, but we often use the voiced alveolar trill. We found it in Ancient Greek, where it was spelled ⟨ῥ⟩; this sound has combined with [r] in Modern Greek.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Icelandic		dagur	[ˈtaːɣʏr̥]	'day'	Postvocalic allophone of /r/. See Icelandic phonology
Lezgian		крчар/krčar	[ˈkʰr̥t͡ʃar]	'horns'	Allophone of /r/ between voiceless obstruents
Welsh		Rhagfyr	[ˈr̥aɡvɨr]	'December'	Contrasts voiced and voiceless alveolar trills. See Welsh phonology.

Raised alveolar non-sonorant trill

In Czech there are two contrasting alveolar trills. Besides the typical trill, written r, there is another, written ř, in words such as rybáři [ˈrɪbaːr̝ɪ] 'fishermen' and the common surname Dvořák. Its manner of articulation is similar to [r] but the tongue is raised; it is partially fricative, with the frication sounding rather like [ʒ], though not so retracted. Thus in the IPA it is written as ⟨r⟩ plus the raising diacritic, ⟨r̝⟩. (Before the 1989 IPA Kiel Convention, it had a dedicated symbol ⟨ɼ⟩). It is normally voiced, but there is a voiceless allophone [r̝̊] as with many other Czech consonants.

(Listen: [r̝] )

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Czech	čtyři	[t͡ʃtɪr̝ɪ]	'four'	See Czech phonology

Bibliography

• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 22 (1-2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• Hanulíková, Adriana; Hamann, Silke (2010), "Slovak", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40 (3): 373–378, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000162
• Haspelmath, Martin (1993), A Grammar of Lezgian, Mouton Grammar Library, 9, Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-013735-6, http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/173731
• Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 38 (1): 107–114
• Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628
• Skalozub, Larisa (1963), Palatogrammy i Rentgenogrammy Soglasnyx Fonem Russkogo Literaturnogo Jazyka, Izdatelstvo Kievskogo Universiteta