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From: rte@anchor.ho.att.com (R.EDWARDS(HOY002)1305)
Subject: Re: German and French uvular 'r'
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References: <3ac3ts$oi1@mother.usf.edu> <CzFDzL.D05@spss.com> <CzGv8p.HDy@inter.NL.net> <3aktut$rrs@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 1994 04:12:40 GMT
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In article <3aktut$rrs@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk>,
Edmund Grimley-Evans <etg10@cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>> I think the American r tends more towars a *retroflex* approximant,
>> whereas the English one is an alveolar approximant.  (There is also the [w]
>> pronunciation, as in "Bwitish").
>
>The pronunciation as W is a speech defect. However it's quite a common
>speech defect because the British R tends to have lip rounding. Maybe
>this isn't the case for North American R.


Prevocalic American R is rounded, postvocalic R is not.  Intervocalic
perhaps weakly rounded.  W is also a common substitute for R in
speech defects here (including postvocalic).  But we don't hear
it on the radio.

