Uvular trill
The
uvular trill is a type of
consonantal sound, used in some
spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital
R. The equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is
R\. This consonant is one of several collectively called
guttural R.
Features of the uvular trill:
* Its
manner of articulation is
trill, which means it is produced by vibrations of the articulator (in this case, the uvula).
* Its
place of articulation is
uvular, which means that it is the
uvula which does the vibrating.
* Its
phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
* It is an
oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
* It is a
central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
* The
airstream mechanism is
pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the
lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the
glottis or the mouth.
The uvular trill is rare outside Europe. It occurs in some varieties of
Abkhaz and in
Ashkenazic
Hebrew. In
Lakhota the uvular trill is an allophone of the
voiced uvular fricative, used in front of /i/.
Within Europe it seems to have originated in
French, from where it spread to modern
Standard German, most
German dialects, some
Dutch dialects, some northern
Italian dialects, and the southern dialects of
Swedish. In part of this area it has since acquired a
uvular fricative allophone, which has taken over completely in Standard Dutch and
Danish. It also occurs among speakers of other languages, when individuals have
speech impediments that make pronouncing the preferred
alveolar trill difficult or impossible (although this is often corrected with minor surgery).
Lenin is probably the most famous Russian to use uvular trills.
Few languages contrast more than one trill. However, older speakers of eastern dialects of
Occitan contrast uvular and alveolar trills, as for example in
cured and
oak.
*
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