5.1 Tap or trill?
The distribution of the two rhotics in Spanish is quite special. While they are contrastive in intervocalic
position; pero – perro, caro – carro, quería – querría, a Roma – aroma etc., in other contexts there is no contrast.
Only the trill occurs:
- word-initially; rosa (rose)
- after land n; alrededor (around), Enrique
Only the tap occurs:
- after a consonant in the same syllable; fraude (fraud), brazo (arm)
- word-medially before a consonant;carta (letter)
- word-finally; mar (see)
If the r is preceded by an /s/, the sibilant is usually deleted and a trill is pronounced las rosas [laˈrosas].
At higher levels: You might mention that in utterance-final position, /ɾ/ is often devoiced and has a number of pronunciation variations.
Ideas for exercises
- Make a list of words and phrases with r’s in syllable coda and make your students regularly practice them.
- Collect phrases like dar ocas vs. da rocas; salí rápido vs. salir rápido and ask your students whether they are pronounced the same way or not and why.
Activity 2
Listen to the speech of this student and try to identify the most important inaccuracies in his pronunciation. Focus on the consonants only.
Transcript: Feedback: Student 3
Alicante fue jepublijana durante todo el conflicto, desde el principio hasta el final. Cuando la g.. güe empieza, en la cárcel de Alicante estaba José Antonio Primo de Rivera. Fundador del partido fascista ‘Falange Española’, Y una de las figuras políticas más importantes de esta época. José Antonio instigó y apoyó la sublación milita. Fue juzgado y condenado a muerte y el veinte de noviembre de mil novicintos trenti y ses lo fusilaron en Alicante. Durante la güerra, aunque Alicante estuvo alejada del frente y no jubo ninguna batalla importante. La ciudad padeció algunos de los peores bombardeos a-éreos contra la población civil que se levaron acabao por toda España durante la güerra civil. Al final de la güerra, el puerto de Alicante jugó un papel crucial. Del puerto salieron la maroría de los exilados en barcos como el Stanbrook que era un gran barco de carga británico que legó a Alicante para recoger un cargamento de naranjas y salió con miles de españoles vencidos juendo de las posibles represalias. Y en este puerto terminó la guerra la mañana del primer de abril de mil novicientos trienti y nueve cuando los últimos soldados republicanos entregaron las armas. La rendición fue en Alicante y a la continuación Franco anunció el final de la güerra en Madrid. Las güerras civilis son las güerras más crueles porque no hay un frente de combate yeográfico. Sino que es en su mayoría un combate ideológico. Vencer en una güerra civil lleva mucho más que vencer en sus batallas. El pueblo alicantino sufrió ciertamente por este episodio tan doloroso de su jistoria.
Answer
In this sample there are several pronunciation features that deserve attention.
The audible presence of the so called “reading” phenomenon is obvious. Firstly, the rhythm and intonation are inadequate and completely monotonous. There are many mistakes that are affected by spelling (hubo with hache, batalla with l), and cognates pronounced as though they were English words (fascista).
We will focus on consonants. The student pronounces the velar fricative [x] as in naranja correctly. This means that the phoneme that has no similar counterpart in English, has been acquired correctly. However, there are a number of features which show that the phonology of the mother tongue has a major influence on the student’s pronunciation.
The production of voiceless stops is quite aspirated, just as in English (puerto, padeció).
He produces the alveolar tap or flap [ɾ] (durante) and the alveolar trill [r] (guerra) the same way and pronounced as r is in English. This could be improved, although we would like to emphasise that there is no point in insisting on a rolled pronunciation if it is difficult for the learner. It is more important to point out that he does not pronounce the r’s in syllable coda at all; fundadoR, impoRtante, baRco.
If the above-mentioned errors – which can hinder comprehension – have been tackled, we can focus on /v/ in all its positions, as it is pronounced [v] instead of [b] or [β] (noVecientos), and on voiced stops (instiGó, and De), as they are always pronounced as occlusives rather than approximants.