The "-er" at the end of words...

[armedcow]

Ok. I've been "listening" to Duolingo speak Norwegian for 429 days and I still can't quite pick up the pronunciation, or the mechanics, of speaking the "-er" at the end of words - lager, leser, fyller, trenger, for example. It's obviously not the English "er" as in "her", but it is not so open as the German "er", which to my ears is more of an "a" sound (picture Arnold Schwarzenegger - "It's not a tumah." I certainly would like to avoid saying "Jeg leser bøker" like "Yi laser booker" (picture Dr. Evil saying that.)

I have watched copious amounts of Norwegian TV on Netflix, and I still can't quite seem to grasp the production of this sound. I think it's because it almost gets "swallowed" - am I getting close? Is there a soft "d" at the end? Every time I think I have it, it just never sounds correct.

Any help appreciated.

[spencer1411]

I don't recall what Duo's audio was like, but you're probably hearing a single flap of the tip of the tongue against the hard palate a bit behind the teeth. Similar to a rolled R, but only once.

[Basler Biker]

Try Langua - even the free offering has very good natural-sounding TTS voices,
with a very complete set of preference parameters for you to set.

I didn't check (I am using it for Swedish) whether they offer Norvegian, but have a go with it and tell us if it's any better (well, can't be worse than DL's audio, can it?)

https://languatalk.com/langua/

[armedcow]

Takk! I have been pronouncing it with the single tap of the rolled “r” - it seemed to be what I was hearing, most times. I think there may be some variation involved as well, depending on the word. I found a YouTube video that addressed this very issue and laughed inwardly as she rhymed off a few words because I swear, each -er was pronounced differently. Some sounded like a short roll, some sounded like the German pronunciation, and one sounded like a hard English -er, as in “grrr”.

Sigh. I’ll get it - I think I’m close enough

[SansEspoir]

Are the words you mentioned the words you want? Or are there any specific sentences you want? Because I can make you a custom voice clip.
But in general we don't tend to roll our Rs as long as the italians do, for instance. So what you're hearing is probably what @spencer1411 said, the tongue is only rolled once, so it's not always audible to an untrained ear. If you focus on the southern and western dialects that use a more throathy R similar to the french, you might hear it more pronounced.

And often, the E is pronounced like Æ, especially when you don't hear the posh western Oslo dialects that most TTS and actors tend to have.

[weerwater]

Takk! I have been pronouncing it with the single tap of the rolled “r” - it seemed to be what I was hearing, most times. I think there may be some variation involved as well, depending on the word. I found a YouTube video that addressed this very issue and laughed inwardly as she rhymed off a few words because I swear, each -er was pronounced differently. Some sounded like a short roll, some sounded like the German pronunciation, and one sounded like a hard English -er, as in “grrr”.

Sigh. I’ll get it - I think I’m close enough

That hard English -er, as in “grrr”... seems to sound like this
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries. ... glish/grrr.

That does not sound like any Norwegian I have 'encountered'.
Perhaps some examples from the DL course could help to get the variations in '-er' on the table.

Å lage:

Vaskemaskinen lager en rar lyd.

1 DL.mp3

(35.76 KiB) Downloaded 14 times

.

Slik lager du mat av rester.

2 DL.mp3

(43.51 KiB) Downloaded 13 times

---

I tried uploading those 12 recordings, without success. Limited to three files only. (Grrr)
But no sweat I will fix that too. Look down.

[weerwater]

Å ligge:

De ligger og leser avisen på soverommet.

3 DL.mp3

(50.65 KiB) Downloaded 14 times

.

Atlanterhavet ligger mellom Europa og Amerika.

4 DL.mp3

(38.06 KiB) Downloaded 15 times

---

continues below ...

[armedcow]

Wow! Thanks for passing on those files. I truly appreciate the effort, and will listen diligently (although I can’t promise it will improve my pronunciation )

[weerwater]

Å fylle:

Han fyller kurvene med roser.

5 DL.mp3

(35.67 KiB) Downloaded 18 times

.
Tannlegebesøk er gratis inntil du fyller nitten.

6 DL.mp3

(43.6 KiB) Downloaded 21 times

---

continues below

[weerwater]

Å trenge:

Du trenger ikke å kommentere alt.

7 DL.mp3

(44.68 KiB) Downloaded 27 times

.

Kunden trenger et nytt hjul til sykkelen sin.

8 DL.mp3

(30.07 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

---

continues below ...

[weerwater]

Å like:

Hun liker ikke dyre smykker.

9 DL.mp3

(22.59 KiB) Downloaded 31 times

.

Jeg liker ikke å anta ting om mennesker.

10 DL.mp3

(50.01 KiB) Downloaded 28 times

---

continues below

[weerwater]

Å gråte:

Tårer faller men hvorfor gråter jeg.

11 DL.mp3

(28.37 KiB) Downloaded 26 times

.

Han står og gråter.

12 DL.mp3

(30.58 KiB) Downloaded 28 times

---

continues below ...

[weerwater]

Those are the twelve sentences.

1. Vaskemaskinen lager en rar lyd.
2. Slik lager du mat av rester.
3. De ligger og leser avisen på soverommet.
4. Atlanterhavet ligger mellom Europa og Amerika.
5. Han fyller kurvene med roser.
6. Tannlegebesøk er gratis inntil du fyller nitten.
7. Du trenger ikke å kommentere alt.
8. Kunden trenger et nytt hjul til sykkelen sin.
9. Hun liker ikke dyre smykker.
10. Jeg liker ikke å anta ting om mennesker.
11. Tårer faller, men hvorfor gråter jeg.
12. Han står og gråter.

I wonder if there is a 'grrr'-case among them ...

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Source DuoLingo 2019 and later