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The Romanian R | ||
Tags: Romanian | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ashley_Victrola Senior Member United States Joined 5705 days ago 416 posts - 429 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French, Romanian | Message 1 of 6 03 June 2009 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
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I know there aren't many Romanian speakers on here, but even if you are not a native speaker and have mastered the "R" in Romanian, I would appreciate it. I keep doing this weird thing with my tongue that seems sort of Spanish even though I don't study that language! My Teach Yourself book very unhelpfully says it is "trilled" like the "Scottish R". Any help you can give...thanks.
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| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5808 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 2 of 6 03 June 2009 at 1:33pm | IP Logged |
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It's a classical trilled R, the same of Spanish and Italian.
It's similar to the TT sound in "latter" in American English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cristiana Diglot Newbie Romania Joined 5999 days ago 31 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 6 03 June 2009 at 1:33pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, there are people studying Romanian! I am amazed.
Um, I don't know if this is helpful, but the Romanian R seems to be identical to the R in Italian and in most Slavic languages. The Spanish R is only a bit different. Also, to my ears, the 't' in the American pronunciation of 'beautiful' is somewhat similar to our R. One thing you could do is find a simple Romanian word that contains an R and listen to its pronunciation over and over again, then try to repeat after the speaker. It certainly helped me in getting past some of the trickier sounds in Hungarian. Maybe someone else could explain the *technique* of getting the trilled R right, although I never found reading about where exactly I should put my tongue to produce this and that particularly useful. You can contact me if you have any other Romanian-related questions and I'll do my best to help you :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5764 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 4 of 6 03 June 2009 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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I also find the Romanian R sound extremely difficult. When I say it at the beginning of a word it sounds more like an 'L' to me, and in the middle of words it just makes my accent sound American. It's much harder than the French 'R', which also took me ages to achieve, and still takes me a lot of effort.
Pronunciation is my weak spot with languages in general (except maybe with German). To achieve a half-decent sounding accent I have to slow my speech down to a moronic like speed :-( 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5837 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 5 of 6 03 June 2009 at 3:49pm | IP Logged |
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With rolling Rs you should probably first learn to say it properly; roll it so the air in the room is shaking! It sounds a little bit like a drill or a machine!
In normal fast speak it is usually not pronounced vert strongly though. The sound that is used instead (cut-back version) actually exists in American English like others have suggested. But when people really want to emphasise a word that contain rolling Rs, then the rolling is properly pronounced. Also when speaking slowly or reading a text aloud, I think most people would pronounce it properly. I think you should try to say it the right way to start with. Once you've got it right, you can start using the 'cut-down' version. It shouldn't be much more difficult than for example learning the French guttural R or the English "TH" sound. Hang in there, you can do it! :-) Here are some guides on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zagSSen1JtY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CA1UcSlyd4&feature=related Edited by cordelia0507 on 03 June 2009 at 3:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rmss Triglot Senior Member Spain spanish-only.coRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6563 days ago 234 posts - 248 votes 3 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 6 of 6 13 June 2009 at 3:25pm | IP Logged |
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This is how I learned how to roll my R (for Spanish, but should work for Romanian as well): http://www.spanish-only.com/2008/03/how-to-roll-your-r/
1. Loosen up the tongue The reason why a lot of people can’t roll their r’s is simple because they’re too stressed, or at least their tongue is. Speakers of American English are actually quite near a rolling r, although most tend to say it’s impossible for them to do. The problem is, however, that they keep their tongue way too far back. The trick is to put your tongue in the front of your mouth, but we’ll get back on that later. First, you want to loosen up your tongue. Something I found useful is to use a tongue-twister. Three simple words worked to loosen up MY tongue: tee dee va. All I did was saying these words fast and for a long period, in order to loosen up my tongue. First I though it was a bunch of bullsh*t to do, but it actually worked. 2. Try to make short trilling sounds So, you tongue is ‘loose’ now? Good. After a lot of practicing with the above method I was able to produce short ‘trrr’ and ‘drrr’ sounds. The reason why I could only make the sound with a t or d in front of it, is because you hold your tongue close to the place it should be with and r when producing a t or d. After the above technique you should be able to produce short rolling sounds as well. It doesn’t matter if the rolling part only is there for a second, as long it’s there. Just take a deep breath and push the air out trying to make a ‘trrr’ or ‘drrr’ sound. 3. Make a an individual rolling r The next and crucial step it so be able to make a individual rolling r. This can be VERY hard to do, so be sure you practiced a lot with the ‘trrr’/'drrr’ method. When I was learning to roll my r, the first few weeks my individual r’s sounded like a weird sissing sound in the beginning. The good part, however, is that after a while you can make looooong rolling sounds without a sissing part in the beginning. Just practice, practice and practice. It can look hard, maybe impossible, to roll your r correctly, but you WILL succeed. Trust me, I’ve been there, I’ve been depressed over the fact I couldn’t roll my r. But I’ve succeeded! 4. Putting your rolling r into words Putting your newly acquired r into words can be really awkward in the beginning. The only way to overcome this is practice A LOT. One thing that helped me was listening to Spanish music and singing along (most people can’t sing, including me, so you might try not to sing too loud), concentrating on the r’s. Just try it, after some days you can confidently roll your r in words, just like any Spanish native-speaker. A website with info about how to place your tongue: http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eacadtech/phonetics/ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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