Rolling your "r"s...

Emi · Post by **Emi** » Sat Feb 26, 2005 11:57 am

Sometimes it's easier to come from Poland

I think that some English-speaking people cannot be taught such a thing like this rolling R
Best regards

**Sponsor:**

hobbes · Post by **hobbes** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 10:56 pm

I'm a Finn living abroad and people seem very fascinated with the Finnish language. Within the last six months I've had three different people tell me that Finnish sounds like Spanish. And all of them have been people who actually know Spanish. Would this have something to do with the r's? I really can't hear the similarity myself...

Another thing relating to pronunciation: trying to teach Finnish to some foreign friends, it seems to be impossible for most people to say certain dipthongs. Words like yö or öitä seem to be most difficult. Any such experiences?

Good luck with the r's everybody!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 11:01 pm

Hmmmm.... there is something about the syllables - you can make a Spanish speech synthetizer "speak" Finnish, the stress is different though.
Try get Rosa to comment:
http://www.naturalvoices.att.com/demos/
Formula yksi, kilpailut, austraaliassa tanaan, kimi raikkonen voitti, suumakker sanoi helvetin helvetti

Falling Rain · Post by **Falling Rain** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:38 am

I've been thinking about rolling your R's, and how my friend taught me to do it.

Here's my advice:

1. place the tip of your tongue at the top of your mouth. I'm not sure whether it matters where, it didn't seem to for me.

2. blow air out, if your tongue is at the roof of your mouth, it should hit your tongue and not escape your mouth.

3. the more you practice doing this, you should start to notice that your tongue will move, it'll start to flip a little, and then start to roll.

4. soon you should be able to make a noise that sounds like a motocycle revving...

You might want to practise away from other people, because apparently the sound gets very annoying after a while.

5. if you practice flipping your tongue whilst saying words with 'r' in them, you should be able to sound like you're rolling your 'r's'. If you practice even more, you might even be able to do it properly, unlike me, who is too lazy.

I managed to get to step 4 in the space of 3 days, surprisingly enough. It was very exciting!!! My brother thinks that the rolled r sound is something that you learn when you're very young, (for non r rolling language people) when you're experimenting with sounds... maybe that's why i never learnt, when i was young i had a speech disability and couldn't say the letter r!!!

Anyhow, hope this helps.

I cant garantee that it'll work though...

Falling Rain · Post by **Falling Rain** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 11:00 am

Yay!! I've progressed to step five!! I can do it properly now!!! *rolls r*

Now i'm living proof that you can teach yourself to do it.

Penny · Post by **Penny** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 12:48 pm

I have no problem rolling my 'r's.

Falling Rain · Post by **Falling Rain** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:09 am

neither do i.........

.......since yesterday.......

mookoo · Post by **mookoo** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:21 am

my first experience with R-rolling was being taught the word PERRRRRRRRKELE!

Now, thats no problem. Its words like löyly that have become troublesome ... it sounds more like a dry heave at the moment. My husband just laughs at me ... so much for my self-confidence.

Falling Rain · Post by **Falling Rain** » Sun Mar 20, 2005 6:42 am

aww. ^^

My friends were very patient with me when i was trying to learn to roll my R's, though my family weren't. They just kept telling me to shut up.

ooh, your avatar is so cute!!! *hugs*

pihlaja · Post by **pihlaja** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 2:41 pm

Honestly? I taught myself to roll my r's by singing Värttinä songs!

But, it did work and I can now roll my r's.

My only complaint is that they sound sloppy. They are not as tight and controlled as the Finns rolling their r's. Mine are kind of loose sounding. But, I CAN roll my r. Whee.

Ugh ... the -y and -ö sounds drive me NUTS! For the life of me, I have a hard time distinguishing between -yö and -öy, as well as -yi and -öi. I'm getting a LITTLE better, but not much. And when I say them, they usually sound the same.

Practise, practise, practise, though! My rule is that if my mouth hurts when saying it, I'm usually saying it right!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Thu Mar 24, 2005 3:23 pm

Repeat after me please: "Köyhä ökyöpeli Yrjänä kyöräsi kyykkäpelin jälkeen kysymättä keltään kyykyssä kuituköydessä kyhnäten työkykyisen pyövelin Kyöstin yöpöydältä öylätin ryönää syöneiden kyiden köyriessä kuutamo yössä kyynisesti ."

pihlaja · Post by **pihlaja** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 1:14 pm

Man those are some nasty sounds ... all concentrated into one big sentence.

Five syllables in and I'm already coughing and sputtering.

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:23 pm

Ask your hubby for a translation - he'll probably have a field day

mookoo · Post by **mookoo** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:33 pm

Hank W. wrote:Repeat after me please: "Köyhä ökyöpeli Yrjänä kyöräsi kyykkäpelin jälkeen kysymättä keltään kyykyssä kuituköydessä kyhnäten työkykyisen pyövelin Kyöstin yöpöydältä öylätin ryönää syöneiden kyiden köyriessä kuutamo yössä kyynisesti ."

Yikes!!

Hank, I bet you know that wonderful saying about building bonfires or something and the only letters used are like k, o, and maybe h (?) I love it!

Hank W. · Post by **Hank W.** » Tue Mar 29, 2005 2:39 pm

- Kokko, kokoo koko kokko kokoon!
- Koko kokkoko?
- Koko kokko.

BTW, if you mind your p's and q's how are you with k's and s's

Yksikseskös istuskelet, itsekseskös yskiskelet?
(thats hard even for a Finn)

And then try to get your pauses right...

Kai kissa kaikissa joissa,
joissa se koittaa onkia,
se koittaa sekoittaa onkia.

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Rolling your "r"s...

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