pronunciation - Exercises for pronouncing the r


I'm a dutch programmer working in a international team where English is the main language. In my native language I have pretty decent articulation. However, when speaking English I have a lot of trouble using words containing a 'r'. Most of the time I create a 'w' sound instead of pronouncing the 'r'. So words like rabbit will sound like 'wabbit', which makes me feel like I am narrating Tweety in his latest cartoon.


Are the any exercises I can do for better pronouncement of words with a 'r'. Thanks for your help.



Answer



The American English /r/ phoneme is rounded, so there should be some "W" sound.


The problem is likely insufficient retroflexion. Make sure your tonguetip is curled up and back, so that you can touch your hard palate with the bottom of the tonguetip. With your tongue in this position and your lips rounded, say [ə]. In practice, native English speakers don't actually touch anything with their tongue when saying /r/, but the tongue is almost there and that's the position, so you can practice it.


For further phonetics, let me recommend J. C. Catford's helpful little book A Practical Introduction to Phonetics; it's designed for the autodidact and is full of little phonetic experiments you can do.


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