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How to pronounce the R in Norwegian

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nightmuser
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China
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Studies: Norwegian

 
 Message 1 of 8
11 July 2012 at 2:35am | IP Logged 
I have practised the norwegian 'r' for many times and still feel really hard to pronunce the right sound. Could anybody tell me how to pronunce the sound step by step? and is there any techniques when speaking this sound? How did you conquer this dreadful pronunciation?

Thanks in advance.



Edited by nightmuser on 11 July 2012 at 2:55am

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 2 of 8
11 July 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged 
Which 'r' are you thinking of and what is your native language? I mostly hear trill and retroflex - if you have any idea of how Spanish (or Scottish English) sound, you're close enough for the trill r. The r can be retroflex before d, n, t, l and s, in which case you can imitate American English (or a heavily Beijing-accented English). rn - similar to hoRN
rd - similar to haRD
rt - similar to huRT
rs - similar to haRSH
rl - similar to huRL

Note that Bergen-accent has a throaty r in all positions (not identical to French or German, but close enough, should you have any idea of how these languages sound).
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daegga
Tetraglot
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Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian
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 Message 3 of 8
11 July 2012 at 4:47pm | IP Logged 
An alveolar tap is sufficient, a short trill wouldn't be wrong either. If the trill is too hard to pronounce for you, go for the tap, it requires less energy and comes more natural for people without a trill in their native language.
As for the "retroflex r":
before d, it is usually pronounced like the standard r and the d is not pronounced at all (that has actually nothing to do with the r but with the d - the d is usually silent after a consonant, thus it isn't affected by the r. This isn't the case when 2 words are spoken together, like "for dem". Here the d can't be silent and thus it is affected by the r just like a t would be)
before the other consonants Jeff mentioned, the r isn't pronounced at all, but the other consonant becomes a retroflex one, ie. you point the tip of your tongue backwards while pronouncing the consonant. For rs however, you don't need to point the tip of your tongue backwards but you just retract the whole tongue (so the tip of the tongue meets with the roof of the mouth farther back than usual, but the tip still points forward.
Be aware that this is the textbook pronunciation for foreign learners reading Bokmål aloud (there is no real standard pronunciation that I am aware of...almost everybody speaks dialect anyways), pronunciation in different dialects may be different.

Edited by daegga on 11 July 2012 at 9:58pm

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tractor
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Norway
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Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 4 of 8
11 July 2012 at 5:04pm | IP Logged 
The pronucniation of the R varies from region to region. There are dialects where it's almost like a French R, where
it's almost like a Spanish R and where it's almost like an American R. Not all dialects have the retroflex. Unless you
want to learn a specific dialect or regional variant, just follow the textbook pronunciation, and you'll be fine.
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nightmuser
Newbie
China
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Studies: Norwegian

 
 Message 5 of 8
12 July 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Which 'r' are you thinking of and what is your native language? I mostly hear trill and retroflex - if you have any idea of how Spanish (or Scottish English) sound, you're close enough for the trill r. The r can be retroflex before d, n, t, l and s, in which case you can imitate American English (or a heavily Beijing-accented English). rn - similar to hoRN
rd - similar to haRD
rt - similar to huRT
rs - similar to haRSH
rl - similar to huRL

Note that Bergen-accent has a throaty r in all positions (not identical to French or German, but close enough, should you have any idea of how these languages sound).




Jeff, Thanks.

1.My native language is Mandarin. I know how to roll the R in Spanish. Can I just use it to replace the R in norwegian? But the r in Spanish seems
to pronounce longer.

2.Any pronounciation difference between r before and after a vowel, e.g ar Vs. ra;

2. For rd/rn/rt/rl/rs, I have now acquired it.Thanks.

3. For R+other consanants, e.g. rg/rk/rb, r is silent? if not, how to pronounce?

4. For the words ending with er/or (e.g. her, er, heter, kommer, bor), does the r pronounce? and what's pronounciation of e? ae or e?


Sorry for so many questions.


Edited by nightmuser on 12 July 2012 at 3:48am

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nightmuser
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China
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Studies: Norwegian

 
 Message 6 of 8
12 July 2012 at 10:07am | IP Logged 
tractor wrote:
The pronucniation of the R varies from region to region. There are dialects where it's almost like a French R, where
it's almost like a Spanish R and where it's almost like an American R. Not all dialects have the retroflex. Unless you
want to learn a specific dialect or regional variant, just follow the textbook pronunciation, and you'll be fine.


Tractor, if i pronounce it in English "r", could the native norwegian understand?
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tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
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Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 7 of 8
12 July 2012 at 5:13pm | IP Logged 
nightmuser wrote:
tractor wrote:
The pronucniation of the R varies from region to region. There are dialects
where it's almost like a French R, where
it's almost like a Spanish R and where it's almost like an American R. Not all dialects have the retroflex. Unless you
want to learn a specific dialect or regional variant, just follow the textbook pronunciation, and you'll be fine.


Tractor, if i pronounce it in English "r", could the native norwegian understand?

Yes, you will be understood. However, it will make your Norwegian sound "foreign". The American or English
sounding r is only found in a few dialects in Northern Norway.
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tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
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1349 posts - 2292 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

 
 Message 8 of 8
12 July 2012 at 9:08pm | IP Logged 
nightmuser wrote:
3. For R+other consanants, e.g. rg/rk/rb, r is silent? if not, how to pronounce?

Pronounce it like the "normal R" (i.e. not the retroflex).

nightmuser wrote:
4. For the words ending with er/or (e.g. her, er, heter, kommer, bor), does the r pronounce?

Yes. Be aware that in many dialects 'er' is 'e' and 'heter' is 'hete' without the R, so you'll hear that often when people
are talking. In Standard Norwegian (Bokmål or Nynorsk) however, you'll have to pronounce the R.

nightmuser wrote:
and what's pronounciation of e? ae or e?

Oh, the pronunciation of the E varies from word to word, and from dialect to dialect. It can be a closed e [e], an open
e [ɛ], an æ [æ] or a schwa [ə] depending on the word and the dialect or regional accent. There are probably some
rules that govern this, but as a native speaker I don't know them.


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