The voiced uvular trill is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
al sound, used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
that represents this sound is , a
small capital version of the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
letter
r. This consonant is one of several collectively called
guttural R.
Features
Features of the voiced uvular trill:
Unlike in tongue-tip trills, it is the uvula, not the tongue, that vibrates.
Occurrence

There are two main hypotheses regarding the origination of the uvular trill in European languages. According to one hypothesis, the uvular trill originated in Standard
French around the 17th century and spread to the standard varieties of
German,
Danish,
Portuguese, and some of those of
Dutch,
Norwegian and
Swedish. It is also present in other areas of Europe, but it is not clear if such pronunciations are due to French influence.
[, citing , , and ] In most cases, varieties have shifted the sound to a
voiced uvular fricative
The voiced uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication, spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , an inverted small uppercase letter , or in broad t ...
or a
voiced uvular approximant .
The other main hypothesis is that the uvular R originated within Germanic languages by the weakening of the
alveolar R, which was replaced by an imitation of the alveolar R (vocalisation). Against the "French origin" hypothesis, it is said that there are many signs that the uvular R existed in some German dialects long before the 17th century.
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ej ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{LetterR
Trill consonants
Uvular consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Oral consonants
Central consonants