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Letter resh in Yiddish.

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Corinnebelle

Letter resh in Yiddish.

Post by Corinnebelle »

R4N7510 wrote:

How do you pronounce this letter ר in Yiddish? In Duolingo it says that ר sounds like Spanish R/RR, but I have understood that some people pronounce it more like a uvular fricative R, like in Standard German. That is right?

Comments:
svenji
2517111086322319
I've asked my Yiddish professor, but there was no clear answer. It seems, both are accepted. See this article for more: https://yiddishdialectdictionary.com/articulation-of-r/

Kami12087
2525222071261
It depends on the dialect.

Here, in the Chassidic accent, the R sounds very Slavic to me. (I speak a Slavic first language.) It's rolled, but not trilled, and also doesn't have the 'hr' sound that the Hebrew resh does. This kind of makes sense, as this dialect developed in Poland (and then Hungary).

But most Yiddish speakers I've met/heard, who were from Eastern Europe, did do the 'hr' sound, like in Hebrew. They spoke a different dialect though. Litvish, I think.

R4N7510
2220987664333322
To my ears, Slavic languages pronounce R similar to Spanish (my native language), so I suppose this Yiddish dialect pronounce ר like in Slavic languages instead of a uvular fricative like Standard German.

Almost forgot, thanks for the information.

Corinnebelle
2210109664444322177
Hebrew resh sounds kind of like an l to me. Could you tell me more about hr sound?

Kami12087
2525222071261
It's kind of similar to how 'R' is pronounced in French, actually.

I speak 6 languages, with 3 different R's between them -- and how I think of the 'hr' sound that it's as if every time you see an R, there was a HR (both of them pronouncable) there instead. E.g. the name Mira in Hebrew sounds kind of like "Mihra" to me.

I notice that the difference in the tongue placement is: 1. In Slavic languages (and the dialect of Yiddish that we are learning) the tongue is in the front part of the mouth, where it briefly vibrates against the palate while one speaks. 2. In the Litvish dialect (and, more or less, French) pronunciation, the tongue pulls back closer to the throat and seems to usually only briefly touch a different (further back) part of the palate, while pulling back toward the throat. (And maybe the throat is involved some in producing the sound? It has some commonalities with the guttural 'ch'.

Hope my notes on this are useful?

Corinnebelle
2210109664444322177
So like herd, hurt or hour? Without the vowels of course! Hour seems to have hr sound in it.

Gh0stwheel
241031044
I don't think you can compare an English R (at least an American one) to French or Hebrew.

In English (US) we round our lips and the R is softened in comparison to the French/Hebrew R. Almost as if we merge it with a little W as well.

In French and Hebrew (from the past few decades), the R is a "voiced uvular fricative" one. (Though you can still hear the older trilled R if you listen to Dan Kaner, an Israeli news anchor who's renowned for his superb diction that retired earlier this year).

To describe how you pronounce it, let's first think of the trilled R compared to the tap. Both use flapping of the tip of the tongue to produce the sound, but the tap only flaps once.

Now the voiced uvular fricative R does not vibrate using the tip of the tongue, and the lips don't round like the English R. You can try to vibrate the soft palate (about one or two vibrations, so similar to the tap). Do so while pulling the tongue a bit to the back, like Kami12087 has explained.

I'm suggesting to vibrate the soft palate (velar / velum) because it is an easier technique, and it results in pretty much the same sound.

You can hear it here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_uvular_fricative
![Image: Anatomical Places of Articulation](https://i.postimg.cc/0N3HtyCt/Places-of ... lation.jpg)

Corinnebelle
2210109664444322177
Thanks for the in depth reply. I don't really know how to French "R's" but hopefully I develop my Hebrew R over time.

R4N7510
2220987664333322
In Sephardi Hebrew, ''resh'' has a sound similar to Spanish R.

R4N7510
2220987664333322
I think that Kami12087 is referring to the ''hr'' sound like the sound that letter R has in Standard German, IPA /ʁ/.

Corinnebelle
2210109664444322177
Ok, don't really know German but good to know.

Kami12087
2525222071261
From my extremely limited exposure to Standard German, this seems correct.

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dakanga

Re: Letter resh in Yiddish.

Post by dakanga »

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Kelikaku
Israel

Re: Letter resh in Yiddish.

Post by Kelikaku »

There are more than a few different pronunciations. Some speakers will roll or "curve" the 'r' (sounds kind of like gargling) but others, have an accent with more of a Netherlands kind of sound - a hard 'r' sound, close to contemporary USA English. When I hear them speak it is reminiscent of the 'r' sound in Texas German, it sounds very Americanized. Others have a soft 'r' - but the recordings in the drills seem to lean towards a "fancy" rolled r. Sometimes, rarely, a trilled 'r' is also not unknown. Hope this helps.

It seems like you have a lot of leeway in this situation.

Thanks so very much.
Keep up the good work.

bs'd

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