Pronouncing the letter "R"

Tähti · Post by **Tähti** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 5:55 pm

I have big problems pronoucing that letter and i wanted to know if anybody had the same problem as me and finally got to pronounce this letter right,because it's kinda annoying,especially when there are "rr" in words...

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kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:16 pm

Tähti wrote:I have big problems pronoucing that letter and i wanted to know if anybody had the same problem as me and finally got to pronounce this letter right,because it's kinda annoying,especially when there are "rr" in words...

Learn to pronounce the Spanish R sound ! Instructions here :

http://spanish.about.com/cs/pronunciati ... unce_r.htm

Spanish has two r sounds. One of them is very similar to the Finnish r sound.

kalmisto · Post by **kalmisto** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:33 pm

Tähti

There is a Finnish speech synthesizer at :

http://www.mikropuhe.com/demo.asp

Write a word or a sentence in the text field, then click on "Kuuntele puhe" !

Listen to words like "marraskuu" ( november )and "purra" ( to bite ).

If you want to listen to the r sound a little longer, write "marrrrrrrrrrrrrraskuu" !

Some words that have a short r sound : paras ( best ), rikas ( rich ), murha ( murder ) and "meri" ( sea ).

smilesalot · Post by **smilesalot** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:13 pm

Learn to pronounce the Spanish R sound ! Instructions here :

http://spanish.about.com/cs/pronunciati ... unce_r.htm

Spanish has two r sounds. One of them is very similar to the Finnish r sound.

I like the explanation, its a little confusing when they talk about the flap of the tongue. I used to say the word butter over and over real fast, the double t in American English almost sounds like a d. When you say it real fast it gives the tongue that flap they are talking about.
Another word that sort of reminds me is batter. When I played in the little league we used to say "eh batte batte batter", I don't know where your from but, if you watch an American movie where they play little league baseball you will usually here them say that. One movie that comes to mind is the Bad news bears.
If you practice saying the words they give in the example (bitter, butter batter,cattle etc..) like 5 times really fast, you will get the feeling of how the tongue flaps and how the r is rolled.
Its sort of silly but it worked for me, now I can roll my rrrrrrr's with the best of them.

Another reason I know why some people can't roll their r's is because their tongue can't flap against the roof of their mouth. My cousin had this problem, she couldn't even stick her tongue out of her mouth. She went in for a minor surgery, they snipped her frenulum and now she can roll her r's perfectly and stick her tongue out of her mouth.

If you are still confused what I mean let me know I can email some audio clips

smilesalot

___________________

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another

nirva · Post by **nirva** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:37 pm

Good luck trying to learn the "ärrä", it's very difficult to many Finns too. Even our president can't pronounce it.

kukkuluuruu · Post by **kukkuluuruu** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:58 pm

Had also big problems with it, still have sometimes when I am not concentrating; mostly I think I try to bring the rrrrrrrr more into the front...

Tähti wrote:I have big problems pronoucing that letter and i wanted to know if anybody had the same problem as me and finally got to pronounce this letter right,because it's kinda annoying,especially when there are "rr" in words...

Tähti · Post by **Tähti** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:02 pm

Kiitos everyone !!!

But I think that one of the problems is that I have a tongue ring...I never could pronounce spanish r neither...my sister can and she tried to teach me but I still can't,even a few years of spanish lessons

Jussi · Post by **Jussi** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 12:46 am

smilesalot wrote: I like the explanation, its a little confusing when they talk about the flap of the tongue. I used to say the word butter over and over real fast, the double t in American English almost sounds like a d. When you say it real fast it gives the tongue that flap they are talking about.
Another word that sort of reminds me is batter. When I played in the little league we used to say "eh batte batte batter", I don't know where your from but, if you watch an American movie where they play little league baseball you will usually here them say that. One movie that comes to mind is the Bad news bears.
If you practice saying the words they give in the example (bitter, butter batter,cattle etc..) like 5 times really fast, you will get the feeling of how the tongue flaps and how the r is rolled.
Its sort of silly but it worked for me, now I can roll my rrrrrrr's with the best of them.

Ferris Buelers day off??

smilesalot · Post by **smilesalot** » Tue Nov 08, 2005 1:07 am

But I think that one of the problems is that I have a tongue ring

There you go, all you have to do is remove it, and in about 2 hours time you will be rolling r's with the rest of us. It can still be that your tongue is to short to roll off the roof of your mouth and you just need the frenulum reduced.

smilesalot

_____________________

Life is not a plate to be emptied - it's a bowl to be filled

Cadwgan · Post by **Cadwgan** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 8:03 am

I don't see what's so hard about rolling the r. I think its harder to NOT roll the r, it just makes the syllables flow together better.

I do it when I speak English. Can't help it. Leave me alone.

yaxxi · Post by **yaxxi** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:08 am

I took me 2 years, heheh. Try singing Finnish songs loudly in the shower, the car and so on and suddenly you can make it

yamoussoukro · Post by **yamoussoukro** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 2:53 am

I'm Finn and not ärrävikainen, so I don't know if I can help. I know that in speech therapy(?) they practice T, D and R together and combining them because they are the closest sounds. So you could start from T, then make D and try to observe what you are doing with your tongue.(lifting up?) Traveled in Mexico with American friend, he had the same problem. My problem was to pronounce their D as Finnish one, since they here it as R. So Spanish D is actually between Finnish T and D. Order would then be Finnish T, Spanish D, Finnish D, Finnish/Spanish R.

I don't know if these thoughts help at all, but I'm just very excited about this stuff. Learning different sounds etc.

It already helps not to live in Pohjanmaa, since they pronounce pretty much every D as R. If someone puts wet clothes to dry on the neibours new wooden fence, neibours kids might educate them saying: Teirään äireen märännehet retut, märännyttää meirään äireen uuren airan.

p.s This is how we use to practice R and S sounds as kids:
Ärrän kierrän ympäri orren, ässän pistän taskuun.

KallioFan · Post by **KallioFan** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 2:15 am

I have big problems rolling the 'r' sound as well. I can do the 'double r' sound a bit but the 'single r' sound I find really difficult! It's really pissing me off. Sometimes when I try and do the short sound it either ends up sounding like a cross between an 'r' and an 'l'

or I make the sound too long and it sounds like a 'double r'. I guess i'll just have to keep trying *sigh*

smilesalot · Post by **smilesalot** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:42 am

I have big problems rolling the 'r' sound as well. I can do the 'double r' sound a bit but the 'single r' sound I find really difficult! It's really pissing me off.

Just go get your frenulum cut, snip-snip and be done with it, end of storey, The biggest physical problem there is for rolling R's, lack of tongue length.

smilesalot

Can you guess who said this on TV ? "You've mastered a dead tongue. But can ya handle a live one? "

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