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Michael wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I had to come up with an IPA transcription for the word "furor" today
> (leaving the second syllable unstressed, without an "oh" sound), and
> I'm a bit confused as to what it should be. After all, the "-or" is
> clearly the alveolar approximant (upside down "r" in IPA), but what
> about the preceding "r"? It doesn't make any sense to write "fjurr"
> with two r's.
You've run into the reason that a lot of non-Americans say Pres. Bush
talks about "tairists". And I do too, or pretty close. You should
hear me on "rural" or "caterer". I think what I do when I'm careful is
keep my tongue and lips in the same position but lower my jaw a bit and
then bring it back. (That is, my jaw goes high-low-high.) Sorry, I
don't know whether there's IPA for that.
> It made me think: if you take the sound "er" (as in "Er, I don't know")
Isn't that "er" a spelling pronunciation of the way non-rhotic people
write "uh"? And do they pronounce "Er, I don't know" with an audible
/r/?
> you can put an "r" in front of it to make "rer". There is clearly an
> extra sound here at the front, but the result isn't just an elongated
> "rrr", to me there are two distinct sounds, but I don't know what the
> first one would be called. It seems like a labialized r, followed by a
> non-labialized one. Can anyone help me understand this? Is there a
> separate IPA symbol for this preceding r? I can't seem to find much
> mention of it anywhere.
Sorry, not me.
--
Jerry Friedman
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