in french, we used to all roll the Rs like the spanish, etc but the standardization made it the gutteral R like as in germany. Some francphone areas still roll our Rs from the tip of the tongue. (and honestly i prefer it lol)
Linguists generally agree that the alveolar trilled (front) /r/ is the original form in north-western european languages. The uvular variant most likely emerged in France in the 15th or 16th century, maybe under the influence of a Celtic substrate in some regions. The spread of the uvular variant is a feature of a “Sprachbund” of the languages on nw-europe. Note that the uvular /r/ is quite rare amongst the world’s languages.
In Afrikaans the "Spanish" trilling or rolling /r/ is considered the only correct way to pronounce the letter, and the "French" uvular /r/ is seen as a speech impediment.
As a German I think that the German/French R and the Dutch R are different. In German at least it is clearly not a trill, it is a fricative produced sometimes with the uvula and sometimes with the velum. In Dutch it is at the uvula and is usually more like a trill than a fricative. And this seems to be the only difference between Dutch R and Dutch g/ch. Sometimes I get lucky and can make a trill, but usually it comes out as a fricative. And because of that I have serious trouble pronouncing the letters g and r as distinct segments when they occur next to each other, e. g. in grappig or graaf.
You're right and I should've been more clear in the video. I'd call the Dutch r an elevated French r, because they do come from the same place, they just require more muscle contraction 😂 however, I've only had to talk about this with French students, I've never had German students struggling with this, so that's interesting
Oooh my favorite subject, the R sound! The following contains Subjective Opinions :smile: I remember from time I spent in Belgium that a few people _really_ do up the uvular trill (like, a handful of taps), whereas more often, it's either a very slight trill (1 or 2 taps?), or a plain old uvular fricative ("like French"). The trilled-but-not-so-many-taps R feels like a blur between the trill and the fricative. It's those outliers who do the several taps who really stand out (to me). One big difference between the French uvular fricative R and e.g. Dutch or German is that in French it's often rounded (lips pursed like U), whereas not so much in other languages. There's also the Brazilian Portuguese unvoiced uvular fricative (I think it's more common in Rio de Janeiro pronunciation, which conveniently starts with the sound), which to many folks is basically a heavier-sounding H. So in my mind there are at least 6 "R"s: - Rhotic (English) - (Usually voiced, sometimes rounded) uvular fricative (French, Dutch, German as spoken e.g. in Düsseldorf) - Tap, as in American "standard" pronunciation of "battle", Spanish single R ("para", "cara", "pero") - Rolled R as in Russian, Italian, Austrian, Bavarian, Spanish initial, before-consonant, or explicitly double - exemplified by the difference between "pero" (tap) and "perro" (rolled). - Uvular trill (Dutch, Flemish) - Unvoiced unrounded uvular fricative (Portuguese as spoken e.g. in Rio) Incidentally, talking about the rolled R, if you want to hear an American person do a _rolled_ R ... Ask them to say this 5 times fast: "It edited it"
Btw, the use of uvular vs alveolar /r/ is very much bound to the speaker’s dialect. Eastern and southern dialects generally use the uvular variant, the northern dialects al ost exclusively use the alveolar variant. The ‘randstad’ (west) uses both. In ‘het gooi’, somewhere southeast of Amsterdam, people actually do pronounce the /r/ more like an American…
I am American and was a student in Belgium. in Belgium the Spanish R is much preferred, but I know many people from the Netherlands use the French R. In Belgium I never heard a soft R at the end of a word, as the Belgians I knew would really vocalize the R at the end of a word. If a Belgian child had trouble with the Spanish R, the child was sent to speech therapy and the French R really wasn't really an option there. I have heard that in Utrecht, a third, "soft R" is used and is used by presenters on Netherlands television. So there two official R''s, Spanish R and French R, but a third soft R is preferred for Dutch TV. That's my understanding of it, but I could be completely wrong. Is the Utrecht R almost an English R?
Interesting! Yes, Belgium does have different rules when it comes to R's. I've actually heard a lot of TV presenters from the Netherlands use a strong Spanish R. The English R is really only acceptable at the end of a word or before a consonant. You can however pronounce either the French or Spanish R just not as strongly, but that wouldn't be the same sensation as for the English R. Hope that helps =)
Sorry for the late reply, I hadn't seen this comment before! Yeah I was thinking the same thing, until I saw another teacher that said that most Dutch people use the Spanish R, so I have no idea to be honest. Also, in some parts of the country, for example Friesland, the Spanish R is used more often, so it can depend on the place you're in. But anywhere in the country you can get away with either R ;)
It occurs to me that the use of the French / German R is more common in areas of the Netherlands near the German border where people speak Low German (Niederdeutsch) or Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch) dialects. While the Spanish / Italian / Swedish R is used in Flanders and the Western Netherlands. Am I wrong or did I have a right intuition? P.S. I still have difficulty understanding English well, maybe it was said in the video, but I didn't understand it.
In fact, [r](Italian or Spanish pronunciation) is general and precise pronunciation in Dutch, but I think that many Dutch pronunciate [ʀ](French or German pronunciation), because [r] is very difficult for most Dutch to pronunciate.
Got to practice om your who gaat het. Your g sounds southern, Vlemisch. Really got to scrape that throat. Also handy if you are planning on learning Arabic. Rolling R, lots of Dutch unable to do that one properly. If I tried it, I sound like a putting cat. Doing it a but to far back. But the only way I sort of manage to do it.
I got the g from my mom actually, who's from the southern part of Noord-Brabant. Although I recently started speaking with a northern g, I was getting too many comments about it and I wanted to stay consistent for my students
You are wrong about Dutch starting with the French/ southern-German R, we started with the rolling R. In north/lower-Germany they use that R still as well.
I'm so happy that there's no standard pronunciation of the Dutch ''r'' because it's really hard for me to soften my hard Slavic ''r'' (Croatian). But even if I could, maybe I would not want to do it, not to sound like I have a ''sphaakgebhek''. How did it go with your Polish ''r'', I wonder? :)
De medeklinker R is in het Nederlands in principe een rollende R. In één generatie tijd is die echter zo goed als verdwenen. In Zuid-Nederland (Brabant en Vlaanderen dus) gebruiken de jongeren steeds meer de Franse huig-R. In Noord-Nederland (Holland en hoger) horen we eerder een Engelse R, zonder tong-of huigslag dus. Of vergis in me?
😅Existential crisis ... Let me see.. Well..I´m ugly, old *52 years old) but I just start to learn dutch on your channel. I´ve been learning a lot. Maybe some day I get married with dutch woman cause they are gorgeous...🙃😊 Jus kidding... Thanks... Goednavond.🤪
As a real Dutch, the teacher in school told us to use the tip of the tongue to make an R. I never use any other R sound. So, the Spanish R, as you call it. I am. I am from Haarlem, where we speak ABN, accentless, Dutch. There is also the Gooise R.
Interesting, I'm also a real Dutch 😂 in case that wasn't clear. I'm from Nijmegen and in the southern part, the French r is more common. It really shouldn't make a difference for ABN.
@@CatsDutchClasses Thats nice to know. My comments are always general, not to a specific person. But its funny that there are many lingual diverances in our small country.
They're slightly different. I just called it the French r for the sake of convenience, because they originate from the same place. But if I were to do this video again, I would probably have called it something else.
@@ambulancerules I do also teach English classes and can help you with your accent. Although I can't guarantee you'll be able to speak like an American, we can make some really good progress with some patience and dedication. Feel free to fill out my contact form in the description if you want to book a class. For more information about pricing and scheduling, feel free to checkout my instagram page: @catsdutchclasses
Dutch born live in Australia. I can still say the dutch g but not r. This video is a great help. Thank you
in french, we used to all roll the Rs like the spanish, etc but the standardization made it the gutteral R like as in germany. Some francphone areas still roll our Rs from the tip of the tongue. (and honestly i prefer it lol)
Interesting, I had no idea
Linguists generally agree that the alveolar trilled (front) /r/ is the original form in north-western european languages. The uvular variant most likely emerged in France in the 15th or 16th century, maybe under the influence of a Celtic substrate in some regions. The spread of the uvular variant is a feature of a “Sprachbund” of the languages on nw-europe. Note that the uvular /r/ is quite rare amongst the world’s languages.
In Afrikaans the "Spanish" trilling or rolling /r/ is considered the only correct way to pronounce the letter, and the "French" uvular /r/ is seen as a speech impediment.
As a German I think that the German/French R and the Dutch R are different. In German at least it is clearly not a trill, it is a fricative produced sometimes with the uvula and sometimes with the velum. In Dutch it is at the uvula and is usually more like a trill than a fricative. And this seems to be the only difference between Dutch R and Dutch g/ch. Sometimes I get lucky and can make a trill, but usually it comes out as a fricative. And because of that I have serious trouble pronouncing the letters g and r as distinct segments when they occur next to each other, e. g. in grappig or graaf.
You're right and I should've been more clear in the video. I'd call the Dutch r an elevated French r, because they do come from the same place, they just require more muscle contraction 😂 however, I've only had to talk about this with French students, I've never had German students struggling with this, so that's interesting
Thank you so much !! Regards from Poland , currently from Limburg 😊
I love Poland! Nie ma za co
@@CatsDutchClassesReally nice to read it !Poland needs more people like you! You have great energy :)
p.s. I love the Netherlands !
Oooh my favorite subject, the R sound! The following contains Subjective Opinions :smile:
I remember from time I spent in Belgium that a few people _really_ do up the uvular trill (like, a handful of taps), whereas more often, it's either a very slight trill (1 or 2 taps?), or a plain old uvular fricative ("like French"). The trilled-but-not-so-many-taps R feels like a blur between the trill and the fricative. It's those outliers who do the several taps who really stand out (to me).
One big difference between the French uvular fricative R and e.g. Dutch or German is that in French it's often rounded (lips pursed like U), whereas not so much in other languages.
There's also the Brazilian Portuguese unvoiced uvular fricative (I think it's more common in Rio de Janeiro pronunciation, which conveniently starts with the sound), which to many folks is basically a heavier-sounding H.
So in my mind there are at least 6 "R"s:
- Rhotic (English)
- (Usually voiced, sometimes rounded) uvular fricative (French, Dutch, German as spoken e.g. in Düsseldorf)
- Tap, as in American "standard" pronunciation of "battle", Spanish single R ("para", "cara", "pero")
- Rolled R as in Russian, Italian, Austrian, Bavarian, Spanish initial, before-consonant, or explicitly double - exemplified by the difference between "pero" (tap) and "perro" (rolled).
- Uvular trill (Dutch, Flemish)
- Unvoiced unrounded uvular fricative (Portuguese as spoken e.g. in Rio)
Incidentally, talking about the rolled R, if you want to hear an American person do a _rolled_ R ... Ask them to say this 5 times fast: "It edited it"
Thank you very much. All exercises are very helpful to me. :)
You're welcome 😊 graag gedaan
This video was very helpful, thank you!
Btw, the use of uvular vs alveolar /r/ is very much bound to the speaker’s dialect. Eastern and southern dialects generally use the uvular variant, the northern dialects al ost exclusively use the alveolar variant. The ‘randstad’ (west) uses both. In ‘het gooi’, somewhere southeast of Amsterdam, people actually do pronounce the /r/ more like an American…
Great explanation =) Only starting learning
I am American and was a student in Belgium. in Belgium the Spanish R is much preferred, but I know many people from the Netherlands use the French R. In Belgium I never heard a soft R at the end of a word, as the Belgians I knew would really vocalize the R at the end of a word. If a Belgian child had trouble with the Spanish R, the child was sent to speech therapy and the French R really wasn't really an option there. I have heard that in Utrecht, a third, "soft R" is used and is used by presenters on Netherlands television. So there two official R''s, Spanish R and French R, but a third soft R is preferred for Dutch TV. That's my understanding of it, but I could be completely wrong. Is the Utrecht R almost an English R?
Interesting! Yes, Belgium does have different rules when it comes to R's. I've actually heard a lot of TV presenters from the Netherlands use a strong Spanish R. The English R is really only acceptable at the end of a word or before a consonant. You can however pronounce either the French or Spanish R just not as strongly, but that wouldn't be the same sensation as for the English R. Hope that helps =)
I have the Spanish R down pretty well, but I am desperately trying to nail the French R!
@@Lathnes ohh succes! (Good luck)
Nice clip, so I can always use Spanish R.
I think most Dutch use the French R and it's a bit different with French R in practice.
Sorry for the late reply, I hadn't seen this comment before! Yeah I was thinking the same thing, until I saw another teacher that said that most Dutch people use the Spanish R, so I have no idea to be honest. Also, in some parts of the country, for example Friesland, the Spanish R is used more often, so it can depend on the place you're in. But anywhere in the country you can get away with either R ;)
It occurs to me that the use of the French / German R is more common in areas of the Netherlands near the German border where people speak Low German (Niederdeutsch) or Low Saxon (Nedersaksisch) dialects. While the Spanish / Italian / Swedish R is used in Flanders and the Western Netherlands.
Am I wrong or did I have a right intuition?
P.S. I still have difficulty understanding English well, maybe it was said in the video, but I didn't understand it.
I don't think I mentioned it in the video, but you're right! 😊
In fact, [r](Italian or Spanish pronunciation) is general and precise pronunciation in Dutch, but I think that many Dutch pronunciate [ʀ](French or German pronunciation), because [r] is very difficult for most Dutch to pronunciate.
It helped me a lot!!
Got to practice om your who gaat het. Your g sounds southern, Vlemisch. Really got to scrape that throat. Also handy if you are planning on learning Arabic. Rolling R, lots of Dutch unable to do that one properly. If I tried it, I sound like a putting cat. Doing it a but to far back. But the only way I sort of manage to do it.
I got the g from my mom actually, who's from the southern part of Noord-Brabant. Although I recently started speaking with a northern g, I was getting too many comments about it and I wanted to stay consistent for my students
This video has answered my question 😄. Thank you so much.
Yay! 😊 graag gedaan
You are wrong about Dutch starting with the French/ southern-German R, we started with the rolling R. In north/lower-Germany they use that R still as well.
I'm so happy that there's no standard pronunciation of the Dutch ''r'' because it's really hard for me to soften my hard Slavic ''r'' (Croatian). But even if I could, maybe I would not want to do it, not to sound like I have a ''sphaakgebhek''. How did it go with your Polish ''r'', I wonder? :)
Glad the video was helpful! My Polish friends are not making fun of me anymore 😁 I'm way too determined a person to let that happen
De medeklinker R is in het Nederlands in principe een rollende R. In één generatie tijd is die echter zo goed als verdwenen. In Zuid-Nederland (Brabant en Vlaanderen dus) gebruiken de jongeren steeds meer de Franse huig-R. In Noord-Nederland (Holland en hoger) horen we eerder een Engelse R, zonder tong-of huigslag dus. Of vergis in me?
Is it incorrect to use an alveolar tap instead of a trill? Kind of like the Scots/Scottish English 'R'.
That's fine, as long as it doesn't sound like an L
😅Existential crisis ... Let me see.. Well..I´m ugly, old *52 years old) but I just start to learn dutch on your channel. I´ve been learning a lot. Maybe some day I get married with dutch woman cause they are gorgeous...🙃😊 Jus kidding... Thanks... Goednavond.🤪
thx a lot
Bedankt thanks አመሰግናለሁ
Graag gedaan
I can't roll my R's to save my life
😂 how about the French r? Is it easier?
@@CatsDutchClasses i didn't know that there was a difference until I watched your video
@@CatsDutchClasses thanks i think that i am starting to get it now
@@brethilnen ah so good to hear 😊
As a real Dutch, the teacher in school told us to use the tip of the tongue to make an R. I never use any other R sound. So, the Spanish R, as you call it. I am. I am from Haarlem, where we speak ABN, accentless, Dutch. There is also the Gooise R.
Interesting, I'm also a real Dutch 😂 in case that wasn't clear. I'm from Nijmegen and in the southern part, the French r is more common. It really shouldn't make a difference for ABN.
@@CatsDutchClasses Thats nice to know. My comments are always general, not to a specific person. But its funny that there are many lingual diverances in our small country.
Ik kan niet genoug je danken 🙏
In summary: rolled before a vowel, rhotic otherwise.
You're wrong, that's not a french r
They're slightly different. I just called it the French r for the sake of convenience, because they originate from the same place. But if I were to do this video again, I would probably have called it something else.
I can't for the life of me pronounce the r sound at the back of my throat. The guttural g is no problem.
why ur accent american
@@ambulancerules because I taught myself to speak with an American accent when speaking English 😊
@@CatsDutchClasses how
@@ambulancerules I do also teach English classes and can help you with your accent. Although I can't guarantee you'll be able to speak like an American, we can make some really good progress with some patience and dedication. Feel free to fill out my contact form in the description if you want to book a class. For more information about pricing and scheduling, feel free to checkout my instagram page: @catsdutchclasses
@@CatsDutchClasses u went to an international school
@@ambulancerules Nope, I spoke with a Dutch accent until I was about 23
your explanation could not be more confusing
You kinda look like @LanguageSimp