Pronounciation of Albanian "r" (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Pronounciation of Albanian "r"
Tags: Albanian \| Pronunciation
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

germito Newbie Joined 5042 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes	Message 1 of 2 14 July 2010 at 10:02pm \| IP Logged
	Hi there, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce the Albanian single r. The sources I have read say that the r is pronounced pretty much like in Spanish, i.e. the single one as an alveolar tap (like Spanish pero) and the double one as an alveolar trill (like Spanish perro). I agree that the rr is a trill, but the r sounds more like an approximant to me (like the r in British English). Spanish is my mother tongue, and the Albanian single r doesn't sound like the r in the Spanish word pero at all. What do you think? Thanks in advance. Edited by Fasulye on 15 July 2010 at 12:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful
pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5446 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese	Message 2 of 2 15 July 2010 at 3:02am \| IP Logged
	I don't know the answer to this, but it strikes a chord with me. I'm in a Balkan folksinging group and we often sing a great Albanian song called Cobankat. The lyrics we have come in various versions, some in Albanian (with its modified Roman alphabet), some in a sort of transcription for (and probably by) English speakers, and some using the sort of transliteration that is used for the far more numerous songs that we do in Macedonian, Bulgarian, and Serbian. The chorus of Cobankat starts out, "O lir lir lir lir...," or "O, ri ri ri ri...," depending on the version. The best I could determine, using the material in the beginning of the Oxford (paperback) Albanian-English dictionary (which seems excellent to me, though I haven't studied Albanian), was that the flaps and taps and such which may or may not describe the Albanian r and l are simply very difficult to describe or to transcribe. I hope you get an answer to your question! 1 person has voted this message useful

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