[tlhIngan Hol] The pronunciation of {Q}

[David Holt]

Jeremy wrote:

I would also point out that as the mouth transitions from an unvoiced uvular affricate to a vowel, it will pass through a velar or even palatal approximant.  In other words, as the mouth moves from the shape of a {Q} to the shape of  one of the vowels, it passes through an /r/ shape.  Notice that the non-existent "r" is only heard when the {Q} is followed by a vowel and not when it is final.

jatlh SuStel:

Can you elaborate on this? When I pronounce Q and then a vowel, my mouth does not pass through what I think of as an r shape. Do you mean like the French guttural r?

That second sentence was written for people who would not understand the first sentence and it is intended to help them understand why they might hear an r, but I suppose it might be misleading if they start raising the front of their tongue because of my inaccurate summary.   It's really more the approximant aspect of the movement that English speakers hear as an r, rather than the actual shape.  Most often, in American English (as well as in Received Pronunciation) the /r/ is a postalveolar central approximant, but due to the wide variation of placement and the common American raising of much of the tongue for the sound, English speakers will often recognize any central approximant as a variation of /r/.  Thus as the tongue moves through "the French gutteral r" ([ʁ]) to move from the {Q} to the vowel, it often sounds like there's an extra r appearing between them, thus accounting for the transcription of {Q} to "Kr".

Jeremy
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