h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd relly love to be able to pronounce my Rs in the good Scots manner. eg to say 'park' instead of the English 'pahk'

Anyone know of any speech therapy-type exercises?

It doesn't help that I have a weak R even by English standards. (Not quite Jonathan Ross. More Dereck Nimmo, maybe)

can you go "lllllllrrrrrrr" with your tongue? you know when you pretend to be a motorbike or something? Thats the way to start....

Then start with easy words like Crinkle or something and throw in a quick llrrr in there. Its hard to explain really. Park isnt the best word to start with...that I do know.

Traveller in Time on top
"Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Repeat daily, until tongue hurts from hitting front teeth."

Prrrrr and Brrrr and I can do....but with my lips.

llllllrrrrrr I can't. Maybe I just have to practice for 1/2 hour per day. I sit the tip of the tongue that's ment to vibrate, or the middle bit? (I can't remember the correct phonetics term just now).

I could do it while I commute (by car, incidentally, not public transport)

I can do the Welsh 'll' properly, though! (Welsh grandparents), and never commit English solecisms such as 'Lock Lomond' or 'Jim Nocktie'.

Traveller in Time training a monkey
"The tip of the tongue should vibrate against .. just behind the upper fore teeth.

And I should go collecting body parts to eplain this ."

OUCH!! im awful when it comes to pronouncing my R's any thing that i say that as a R in it always comes out with a W. So you can imagine what its like and comes out as if i needed to say Ranking for instance.

Please feel free to with me.

Well, when I roll my Rs I find that the tip of my tongue tends to flutter against the roof of my mouth (nowhere near the teeth though). The trick is to let your tongue go as loose and relaxed as possible, but keeping it close to the roof, and then channel high-speed air through the narrow tunnel between your tongue and the roof. Kind of like putting two stiff pieces of paper together and then blowing air through them.

Then again, you know, there are people without the ability to roll their Rs....

and im one of those that dont have the ability to no matter what i try

I've always wanted to be able to do that rolling of the r's too *tries* nope *tries again*
almost*

Its not as easy as people say it is is it?

Mind i bet we can say things others have probs with like tongue twisters

Ahh, I'm rather good with tongue twisters; even at high, and very high* speed....


'pass the forlk and knife please'
repeate, getting faster each time, how long before you begin to swear?

Yeh same here, when my son and hubby take the mick i get them doing tongue twisters, especially hubby with waste not want not he can never get it

Traveller in Time rolling over the r's
" I guess I should give it a search to see what th 'curse' would be why do they not use the w in text speak?

Some already manage to get uncomprehensible when they use the r, perhaps it becomes an awt wen tey use mo weel vocabulary. "

To those who can't roll their Rs:

Hey, I just thought of something. Can you fellows roll the sides of your tongue to form a cylinder? I've found that a lot of my friends who can't roll the sides of their tongues can't roll their Rs either, so maybe there's a correlation there.

Nope. There's a spefic gene known for tongue rolling (as every A level Biology student knows). It is equally prevalent in non-Rolling England as rolling Scotland.

Anyone know the Proclaimers' song?:
'But Ah wouldnae know a single thing to say/ If Ah had tae flatten all ma vowels and throw the R away.'

Uck, I've been trying for ages (I'm a singer, I'm supposed to be able to do it).

There are two ways of doing it. They way I do it is right at the back of the throat. It's more of a growl, really, and it's the same technique as flutter tonguing on the flute. However, it's not really what you want in speech, as it takes a little while to start (and you form words at the front of your mouth anyway). The other way is supposedly being able to flick your tongue through the air flow as you speak. Flatten your tongue and quickly move it, aiming to strike behind your teeth. I've never got the hang of it for prolongued periods of time, but I can get one or two, which should be good enough for speech.

Doubt that helps, but you are not the only one! Oh, and I can roll my tongue.

The growl I can do - they do it in French and also (curiously) in County Durham. (Think of the old guy that used to to the Hovis ads to the Dvorzrzrzrzak tune).

But my tongue is useless. Well...for R rolling anyway

To the best of my knowledge, all Italians and Spanish can roll their R's, so it is not something that only certain people have the ability to do.

Precisely! But it must be one of those things like ear wiggling where the capacity whithers through lack of use.

And I'm sure that Dub folk *can* pronounce Th, too.

My biology teacher assured me that you can either do it or you can't and if you can't do it then there's no way of learning. She also told me that not everyone can form their tongue into a U shape. But I've always thought that's easy - don't you just stick your tongue out and push your lips together?

She used to smoke. We could smell the smoke on her but never actually saw her during the smoking event.