Is letter r pronounced the same as the Spanish r?

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Jimmy9820
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Is letter r pronounced the same as the Spanish r?

Post by Jimmy9820 »

Eg is the r sound in Latin the same as the r in the Spanish words pero and perro?

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bedwere
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Re: Is letter r pronounced the same as the Spanish r?

Post by bedwere »

Quoting Wikipedia
In Classical Latin, the rhotic /r/ was most likely an alveolar trill [r]. Gaius Lucilius likens it to the sound of a dog, and later writers describe it as being produced by vibration. In Old Latin, intervocalic /z/ developed into /r/ (rhotacism), suggesting an approximant like the English [ɹ], and /d/ was sometimes written as /r/, suggesting a tap [ɾ] like Spanish single r.[20]

smitterle
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Re: Is letter r pronounced the same as the Spanish r?

Post by smitterle »

From bedwere's quote then, it seems Classic r was pronounced rather like in modern Italian and that there was not such a strong distinction as in Spanish between flap and strong pronunciation. I live in Spain and people are ver aware of the distinction, many jokes around it.

Jimmy9820
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Re: Is letter r pronounced the same as the Spanish r?

Post by Jimmy9820 »

Thanks!

So to confirm, is the r always trilled? I know in Spanish the r can be tapped or trilled. But with Italian I read somewhere that the r is always a voiced alveolar trill, with a short trill for the single r (not being at the start of a word) and a longer trill for the double r -- is this correct? So should I pronounce the r the spanish way (with both tapped and trilled r) or the Italian way (always trilled)?

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