rr thingy

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by wrholt

Regarding how Puerto Ricans pronounce Puerto Rico, I mostly have heard /puel-to xi-ko/; "r" before a consonant pronounced like 'l', and 'rr' pronounced like French or Brazilian Portuguese 'r', English 'h', or Spanish 'j'.

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

You're right. I've also heard many speakers pronouncing "hard r" almost gutturally.

Just adding, in case it wasn't already said earlier, and as wrholt would know, the folks from Costa Rica say 'zhr' for 'rr'.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Just adding, in case it wasn't already said earlier, and as wrholt would know, the folks from Costa Rica say 'zhr' for 'rr'.

Yup, I've heard that pronunciation a fair bit, too, and not only from Costa Ricans.

One of the textbooks for my university course in Spanish phonetics and phonology described a lot of regional variations in pronouncing "rr". The auther, John B. Dalbor, updated the book later: the third edition of his "Spanish Pronunciation: Theory and Practice" came out in 1996. In my course we used the first edition, from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

[poli]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

Some regional accents pronounce "r" sounds differently. For example, in Puerto Rico and some places in the Caribbean, many speakers tend to pronounce "l" instead of "r" [Puelto Lico, señol...].
Some Chileans and other South Americans pronounce it more like the American "r".
But most speakers tend to use "r" and "rr" in a mostly standard way.
I wouldn't say it's a matter of difficulty; it's probably more about the influence of local indigenous languages.



Oh, nice!

To complicate matters, sometimes the l sound is replaced with r as in esparda instead of espalda.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Rusty: I didn't know that. I don't think I have ever listened to a Costa Rican speak; in any case, I'm confused with many regional accents in Central and South America. ;(

@Poli: True. I've heard that from some Andalusians.