Alveolar trill facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alveolar trill
r
Image
IPA number	122
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	r
Unicode (hex)	U+0072
X-SAMPA	r
Kirshenbaum	r<trl>

The alveolar trill is a special type of consonant sound. You might know it better as the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R. It's a sound found in many spoken languages around the world.

To make this sound, you place the tip of your tongue against the bumpy ridge just behind your top teeth. This ridge is called the "alveolar ridge." Then, you make your tongue vibrate quickly against that ridge. This quick vibration is what makes it a "trill" sound.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses the symbol ⟨⟩ to show this sound. The X-SAMPA system, which is another way to write sounds, uses r. Sometimes, in dictionaries for languages like English or German, you might see ⟨⟩ used even if the "r" sound isn't a true rolled R. This is often just because it's easier to type.

In many Indo-European languages, the rolled R can sometimes sound like a quicker, softer "r" sound, especially in words that aren't stressed. But in languages like Catalan, Spanish, and some Portuguese dialects, the rolled R and the quick "r" are completely different sounds.

Where Can You Hear the Rolled R?

The rolled R sound is used in many languages. Here are some examples:

The Voiceless Rolled R

Most of the time, when you make a rolled R, your vocal cords vibrate. This is called a "voiced" sound. But some languages have a voiceless alveolar trill. This means your vocal cords do not vibrate when you make the sound.

The voiceless rolled R is not as common as the voiced one. You could find it in Ancient Greek, where it was written as ⟨ῥ⟩. In Modern Greek, this sound has changed.

Here are some examples of where you can find the voiceless rolled R:

The Special Czech Rolled R

In Czech, there are two different kinds of rolled R sounds. Besides the normal rolled R (written as r), there's another special one, written as ř.

You can hear this sound in words like rybáři ('fishermen') or čtyři ('four'). It's also in the famous last name Dvořák.

This special sound is made similarly to a normal rolled R, but your tongue is a bit more raised. It also has a slight "hissing" sound, like a fricative (like the "sh" sound), but not as far back in your mouth. In the IPA, it's written as ⟨r⟩ with a special mark above it, ⟨⟩. This sound is usually voiced, but it can also be voiceless, just like other Czech consonant sounds.