# How Do Other Languages Describe Our 'R'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107 "2021-05-14T20:13:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/1 "2021-05-14T20:13:12Z")
In most languages, the letter R is trilled or rolled. Not so in English. So how do other languages hear and describe our ‘R’? And while we’re at it, are there any other languages that don’t roll their R like we do? (I suspect German may. But I am not even sure about that.) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/2 "2021-05-14T20:19:10Z")
I’ve seen francophone references to “the dog’s growl” in english. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/3 "2021-05-14T20:20:12Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > And while we’re at it, are there any other languages that don’t roll their R like we do? You will want to look at the “Postalveolar” table on this page: > **[Voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants | Postalveolar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_alveolar_and_postalveolar_approximants#Postalveolar)** > > As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, \[ɹ\] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/4 "2021-05-14T20:25:33Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2yzMUs3badc/maxresdefault.jpg "Why some Asian accents swap Ls and Rs in English") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yzMUs3badc) It talks about the English “r” and then compares it to other languages. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/5 "2021-05-15T00:27:26Z")
This seems like a general question (factual) more than an opinion-based question. I’m moving it there. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/6 "2021-05-15T00:45:17Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I’ve seen francophone references to “the dog’s growl” in english. Were they really talking about English, and not the “r grasseyé” which occurs in French (e.g., in Paris), compared to a rolled r? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/7 "2021-05-15T01:08:32Z")
Francophones in Quebec; I understood them to be referring to what English sounded like. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/8 "2021-05-15T01:17:49Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I’ve seen francophone references to “the dog’s growl” in english Ben Jonson called the English _r_ “the dog’s letter” in his _English Grammar_ of 1640. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/9 "2021-05-15T01:38:56Z")
As I recall, the conversation also touched on the “th” sound in English, which some francophones find difficult. It was a conversation about difficult English sounds. On the other hand, I’ve also seen francophones wince at some anglos with a strong English “r” speaking French. I’ve heard it called “the Diefenbaker accent”. The most notable time I remember was a future Governor General with a strong English accent, including the “r”. Some of the francophones in the audience thought it just would have been more respectful for him to speak English and leave it to the translators. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/10 "2021-05-15T11:19:25Z")
Fun fact: Few of the world’s six-thousand-plus languages have this particular kind of rhotic, but by coincidence the two biggest languages do have it: English and Mandarin Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![ALOHA\_HATER](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@ALOHA\_HATER](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALOHA_HATER)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/12 "2021-05-15T22:47:02Z")
They do? How the hell does that substitution work? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/13 "2021-05-15T23:38:32Z")
I must have had a brain cramp when I wrote that. It makes no sense. What the French Canadians and the French do is typically substitute their own r for the English. Except a great many French Canadians learned English at an early enough age to speak English perfectly (which the present government is trying its damnedest to prevent). The quotation from Larousse concerned what the french do with the th, another sound rare in natural languages. French Canadians join Brooklyners is using a d for that sound. That Brooklyn dialect is dying out. My grandson who has lived in Brooklyn his entire life has none of it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/14 "2021-05-18T03:39:41Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > As I recall, the conversation also touched on the “th” sound in English, which some francophones find difficult. It was a conversation about difficult English sounds. Which? The voiced, as in “that”, or the unvoiced, as in “thin”? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2021, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-other-languages-describe-our-r/942107/15 "2021-05-18T03:41:06Z")
Both.