Allophonic and free variants of the phoneme /r/
Standard use of brackets in IPA (2005)
 <…>
 /…/
 […]
Angle brackets encircle spellings/graphemes.
Slashes encircle phonemic/broad/dictionary transcriptions.
Square brackets encircle phonetic/narrow transcriptions.
Meaning is encircled by quotation marks ‘…’ in the main text.
(1)
The Latin letter <r> (Greek <ρ> and Cyrillic <р>)
Although in languages using the Latin alphabet, there is the letter/grapheme <r>, it indicates
very different speech sounds.
(2)
Phonemes identified with the help of <r> in foreign languages
Table 1
Language
The pronunciation of letter <r> in different languages
Phoneme
Features
Examples
<arról> /ˈɒrːoːl/,
Hungarian
/r/
voiced alveolar trill
<berreg>/ˈbɛrːɛɡ/,
<balra>/ˈbɒrːɒ/
<sarló>/ˈʃɒɾloː/,
Hungarian
/ɾ/
voiced alveolar tap/flap
<berek>/ˈbɛrɛk/, <kor>/koɾ/,
<varrtam>/ˈvɒɾtɒm/,
<vártam>/ˈvɑːɾtɒm/
/r/
Spanish
/ɾ/
voiced alveolar tap/flap
<Guernica>/ɡe̞ɾˈnika/,
<caro>/ˈkaɾo̞/ ‘expensive’
/ɾ/
voiced alveolar tap/flap
<Dresden>, <die Burg>
‘castle’, <schreiben> ‘write’
/r/
voiced alveolar trill
<beraten> ‘give advice’
/ʀ/
voiced uvular/guttural
trill
Fr <France> /fʀãs/, Ger <die
/ʁ/
voiced uvular/guttural
fricative-approximant
Fr <France> /fʁãs/, Ger <die
/χ/
voiceless uvular/guttural
fricative-approximant
Fr <lettre> /lɛtχ/ ‘letter’
/r̝/
voiced alveolar fricative
trill
Cz <Antonín Dvořák>
/ˈantoɲiːn ˈdvor̝aːk/
German
German
German
and
French
German
and
French
German
and
French
Czech
voiced strong alveolar
trill
<guerra> /ˈɡe̞ra/ ‘war’,
Spanish
<perro>/ˈpe̞ro̞/ ‘pen’,
<carro>/ˈkaro̞/ ‘car’
Burg> /buʀɡ/ ‘castle’
Burg> /buʁɡ/ ‘castle’
Notes
trill (= two
or three
consecutive
taps by the
tip of the
tongue)
flap/tap (=
a single
light or soft
touch on
the alveolar
ridge)
/ɾɾ/ voiced
alveolar
trill (Wells
1990:xxvi)
/ɾ/ voiced
alveolar tap
(Wells
1990:xxvi)
(3)
Allophonic and free variants of the British /r/
TECHNICAL NOTES
(a)
The sound identified as a voiced alveolar frictionless continuant (liquid, approximant)
is conventionally signalled with the phonetic symbol /r/. But it is not the standard symbol
offered by the International Phonetic Association. It is used for the sake of convenience. It is at
hand in printing offices, so it is easier to handle. Nevertheless, the standard symbol displayed
in the International Phonetic Alphabet is /ɹ/.
(b)
It is BrE (RP, Received Pronunciation, Royal Pronunciation) which is the standard in
the table below. AmE is viewed as a dialect in comparison with it.
Allophone
/free
variant
[r] = [ɹ]
[r̥]
Description
Examples
voiced alveolar frictionless <rabbit>[ˈræbɪt],
continuant /
<bread>[bred],
liquid<approximant
<carrot>[ˈkærət]
devoiced alveolar
frictionless continuant /
<cry>[kr̥aɪ], <prey>[pr̥eɪ]
liquid<approximant
[d͡r] = /dr/
voiced post-alveolar
affricate
<drink>[d͡rɪŋk]
[t͡r]̥ = /tr/
voiceless post-alveolar
affricate
<train>[t͡re̥ ɪn]
Notes
BrE/AmE
BrE/AmE
It sounds
similar to
/dʒ/ in some
dialects.
BrE/AmE
It sounds
similar to /t͡ʃ/
in some
dialects.
BrE/AmE
linking /r/: <the teacher and
his colleagues>
[ðəˈtit͡ʃəʳənd̥hɪz̥ˈkɒliˑɡz],
[ʳ]
linking /r/ and intrusive /r/
intrusive /r/: <Africa and its
inhabitants> [ˈæfrɪkəʳənd],
<the idea of language>
[ðɪ.aɪˈdɪəʳəvˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ]
in non-rhotic
dialects, BrE
[ɚ]
rhotic /ə/
<singer>[ˈsɪŋɚ]
[ɝː]
rhotic /ɜː/
<bird>[bɝˑd], <pert>[pɝt]
[r̩]
syllabic voiced alveolar
frictionless continuant /
liquid<approximant
[r̥]̥̍
[ɽ] = [ɻ]
[ɽ̥̍]
[ɽ̥̍]̥
(4)
syllabic devoiced alveolar
frictionless continuant /
liquid<approximant
retroflex voiced alveolar
frictionless continuant
syllabic retroflex voiced
alveolar frictionless
continuant
syllabic retroflex devoiced
alveolar frictionless
continuant
<liberal>/ˈlɪbᵊr‿əl/¹ [ˈlɪbr̩l],
<library>/ˈlaɪbrərɪ/² [ˈlaɪbr̩rɪ],
<visionary>[ˈvɪʒn̩rɪ̩ ]³
<veteran>[ˈvetr̥n̥̍ ̩]¹
<car>[kɑːɽ]
in rhotic
dialects,
AmE, a free
variant
in rhotic
dialects,
AmE, a free
variant
BrE,
¹(Wells
1990),
²(Wells
1990),
³(Roach
1991)
BrE,
¹(Roach
1991)
AmE, a free
variant
<bird>[bɽ̥̍d]
AmE, a free
variant
<pert>[pɽ̥̍t̥ ]
AmE, a free
variant
A strange case
The AmE pronunciation of the word <matter> is given /ˈmæt ̬ ᵊr/ (Wells 1990), /ˈmæt ̬.ɚ/ (Jones
1999) in
pronunciation dictionaries. What does the phonetic symbol /t ̬/ stand for?
It reads in the Longman pronunciation dictionary:
Phonetically /t ̬/ is a voiced alveolar tap (flap). It sounds like a quick English /d/, and
also like the /r/ of some languages. For many Americans, it is actually identical with
their /d/ in the same environment, so that AmE <shutter> /ˈʃᴧt ̬ ᵊr/ identical with
<shudder> /ˈʃᴧd ᵊr/.
(Wells 1990:703, with my amendments)
In contrast with the Longman dictionary ‘phonetician’ explanation, the Cambridge English
pronouncing dictionary gives a user friendly one:
The use of phonemic transcription in works on pronunciation (including this one) has
remained in the “realist” tradition established by Jones, while approaches to the
phoneme by theoretical phonologists have changed radically during recent decades
and become much more abstract. There are a few exceptions to our general use of the
phoneme principle that should be mentioned here, however. One is the use, in
American pronunciations, of the [ ̬] diacritic to indicate the voicing and “flapping” of
/t/ in words such as <getting> /ˈɡet ̬.ɪŋ/, and <better> /ˈbet ̬.ɚ/. This is an important
feature of American pronunciation, but speakers of British English find it difficult to
apply the rule which determines when /t/ is voiced and/or flapped.
(Jones 1999:viii, with my amendments)
There are two more examples presented in a very accurate display below. As can be seen,
there is not any difference between the pronunciations of the last syllables in fact because they
are preceded by syllables ending in retroflex rhoticity, [ɻ] in (1) and [ɝˑ] in (2).
Spelling
BrE,
broad
transcription
Broad transcription
Narrow transcription
(1)
<party>
/ˈpɑːtɪ/
/ˈpɑːrt ̬ɪ/
ͪ
[ˈp ɑˑɻ.ɽɪ]
(2)
<birdie>
/ˈbɜːdɪ/
/ˈbɝː.dɪ/
[ˈb̥ɝˑ.ɽɪ]
AmE
(Jones 1999:194, with my amendments)
So what does the phonetic symbol /t ̬/ stand for? It is a voiced alveolar flap/tap which it
substitutes in transcription. It is a /ɾ/. It is significantly different from /t/, which is a voiceless
alveolar plosive, from a phonetician’s point of view. It holds true for Hungarian
pronunciation, in which there are three distinct phonemes, /ɾ/, /t/, /d/, e.g. <Bereg> ‘an
administrative county in the former Kingdom of Hungary’ /ˈbɛɾɛɡ/, <beteg> /ˈbɛtɛɡ/ and
<Bedeg-völgy> ‘a valley in Miskolc’ /ˈbɛdɛɡvølɟ/.
In AmE it is something different. /t ̬/, which is identical with /ɾ/, is different from a
phonologist’s viewpoint. It is not a phoneme but an allophonic realisation of the phoneme /t/
in an intervocalic position and /d/ in a certain context as exemplified in (2) above.
Bibliography and webliography
International Phonetic Alphabet
‘International Phonetic Alphabet.’ Wikipedia : the free encyclopedia.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA> Last modified: 13-05-2013 Retrieved: 14-05-2013
Jones 1999
Jones, Daniel. English pronouncing dictionary. 15th ed. Ed. by Peter Roach and James Hartman.
Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1999. 578 p. ISBN 0-521-45903-6
Roach 1991
Roach, Peter. English phonetics and phonology : a practical course. 2nd ed. Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press, 1991. x, 262 p. ISBN 0-521-40718-4
Wells 1990
Wells, John Christopher. Longman pronunciation dictionary. Harlow : Longman, © 1990,
ISBN 0-582-05383-8