Rhotacism

Rhotacism may refer to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r (whether as an alveolar tap, alveolar trill, or the rarer uvular trill).

the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;
conversely, the inability or difficulty in pronouncing r.
the conversion of another consonant, e.g., s, into r.

The term comes from the Greek letter rho, denoting "r".

Orthoepy

In medicine rhotacism is the inability or difficulty in pronouncing the sound "r". One alleged sufferer is the British TV personality Jonathan Ross, who pronounces his own surname more like "Woss", or the internet character Homestar Runner, who pronounces his name as "Homestaw Wunnew".

Phonetics

In Indo-European languages, rhotacism can be seen in a conversion of another consonant — for instance "s" or "d" or "n" to "r" in many words.

Albanian

Albanian rhotacism changes "n" to "r";

ranë (from the Latin arena) vs rërë (= "sand")
Valona (from the Latin Avlona) vs Vlora (a town in Southern Albania)

that change took place in the 13th century in the southern (Tosk) dialects, which now dominate in the literary language. The Northern Gheg dialects, also spoken in Kosovo and Western Macedonia, keep the original "n". Hence "armik" (dictionary entry for "enemy") is "anmik" in Gheg.

Dutch

vriezen vs gevroren (from Germanic *friusana vs *fruzenaz)

Compare also Gothic dags with Old Norse dagr (from Germanic *dagaz)

English

was vs were (from Germanic *was vs *wēzun)
lose vs forlorn (from Germanic *liusana vs *luzenaz)

German

war vs gewesen (from Germanic *was vs *wēzun)

Japanese

The Japanese language does not have a phoneme equivalent to the English 'l' or 'r'; the closest sound is referred to as an alveolar lateral flap. Loanwords with 'l' or 'r' in the original language are represented using this sound, and in romanized Japanese text the letter 'r' is used, regardless of whether the original was an 'r' or 'l' to begin with. Accordingly, Japanese people are faced with rhotacism-type trouble in pronouncing the letters 'r' and 'l', as well as difficulty in differentiating between the two sounds.

Latin

flos (nominative) vs florem (accusative) (Old Latin flosem)
genus (nominative) vs generis (genitive) (from *geneses, cf Sanskrit janasas)
corroborare vs robustus (verb from *conrobosare)
de iure vs iustus (from de iouse)
ero vs est (from eso)

Neapolitan

In Neapolitan rhotacism is seen in a shift from the sound of "d" to an "r" sound:

(Italian vs Neapolitan)

medesimo vs meresemo
diaspora vs riaspro

and, to a lesser extent, from the sound of an "l" to an "r" sound:

albero vs arvero
ultimo vs urdemo

Portuguese

In early Portuguese, rhotacism occurred from the "l" sound to the "r" sound, as in the words obrigado "obliged" and praça "plaza".

Quenya

Although it is not an Indo-European language, actually not a natural language at all, J. R. R. Tolkien's Quenya converts -s to -r for historical reasons:

kár "head" vs kas-, e.g. *casi "heads". Source: The Etymologies (1930s Quenya).
mar "dwelling of men, the Earth, -land" vs mas-, e.g. *masen "of dwelling". Source: The Book of Lost Tales I (1910s Quenya).

Romanian

Romanian rhotacism consists of a shift from intervocalic "l" to "r" and "n" to "r".

Thus, Latin caelum became Romanian cer and Latin fenestra becomes Romanian fereastră.

Some northern Romanian dialects and Istro-Romanian also further transformed all intervocalic "n" into "r". For example, Latin bonus became Istro-Romanian bur, as compared to standard Daco-Romanian bun.

Sanskrit

Words ending in -s other than -as become -r in sandhi with a voiced consonant:

naus (before p/t/k) vs naur bharati
agnis (before p/t/k) vs agnir mata

This is not a case of rhotacism proper, since r and s are simply allophones in those positions.

Slovene

Slovenian rhotacism consists of shift from (like in English vision) to vibrating [r:

moreš from možešь
kdor from kъtože

Slovenian rhotacism is already visible in the Freising manuscripts, a written document from the 10th century.

The same shift occurred in single words in other South Slavic languages.

Historical linguistics | Sociolinguistics | Phonetics

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Rhotacism

Phonetics