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Today's show featured a quiz that involved "words that start with three consonants." In almost all cases, the third consonant was that most inconsonant of consonants, "R."
I've been thinking since my 1st-Grade introduction to phonics that "R" has been thrown into the wrong box. Production of its sound doesn't have any of the usual consonant features such as stops, fricatives, or plosives. It's not voiceless. It doesn't need a particularly strong push of the diaphragm. It is produced, as are all other vowels, simply by voicing through an internal mouth shape that makes the little siren-growl we all know and love. It does that diphthong thing sometimes. But it seems to me that "R" diphs-thong much less than "I" does.
It's used as a vowel in lots of Eastern European languages. A good school-friend was last-named Vrshek.
The only possible reasoning that enters my curious mind … is that it might mark syllable boundaries somewhat more often than other vowels. A counter-example is the convenient (only because it's ^ right up there) word "diaphragm," in which there is a phrase boundary between two official vowels, but the "R" does not mark a boundary.
So I find myself wondering what gaggle of learned phonicians decided it belonged this way … and what the rationale could possibly have been.
This is an excellent question. The quick answer to your question is that the letter R can function as a vowel, but is not a vowel in English.
Your friend's last name is Slavic, probably Czech. Czech is a great language to discuss on this topic. There is a sort of tongue twister made up of words without vowels in which each word centers on a vocalic R:
StrÄ prst skrz krk. (Roughly, and aptly: Stick a finger down your throat.)
Having said that, not all languages require vowels for words, and the Slavic languages are among them. Notably, the prepositions can be /k/ /s/ /v/. Czech does not consider the letter R as a vowel, and they are unconcerned that there are then words without vowels in them. They do recognize that the /r/ sound is functioning as a vocalic r, meaning that it is used phonetically as a vowel.
When I start to draw the distinction between the letter R and the sound /r/ there is no question that /r/ can and does function phonetically as a vowel, even in English. When it does, it is called vocalic r or a syllabic r. Many other sounds also can function vocalically (syllabically), including the closely related /l/, as well as /n/, /m/, and /Å‹/.
So there are several letters which are not considered vowels for which the sounds can and do function vocalically.
Here is an academic treatment of the topic:
Post-vocalic and syllabic /r/ and /l/ in English
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 70, Issue S1, pp. S40-S40 (November 1981)
Issue Date: November 1981
Syllabic R
Unlike consonants, /r/ and /l/ are a part of the syllable nucleus, but, unlike glides, are not a part of the vowel. Syllabic /r/ and /l/ show the error patterns of both vowels and consonants. They are syllabic consonants rather than vowels, but show vowel error patterns by virtue of their syllabicness and sharing many features with vowels.
(emphasis mine)
To come at it from another direction, there are languages in which R functions only as a consonant, to the extent of appearing only in the types of contexts where other consonants appear and never in places where a vowel would occur. I'm thinking in particular of Japanese, where the go-ju on syllabary pairs each consonant with each vowel to form fifty combinations; "ra-ri-ru-re-ro" stands with equal footing alongside rows such as "ka-ki-ku-ke-ko" and "ma-mi-mu-me-mo". At the same time, there's no "kr-" or "tr-" in the language at all.
Mind you, Japanese R is not exactly the same as any of the several English R sounds. For that matter, R before a vowel in English is not the same consonant as R before a vowel in French or German.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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