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I've read that the Bavarian accent (or the southern regions in general) uses a trilled R -- IPA [r] -- instead of the "standard" voiced uvular fricative -- IPA [ʁ]. I've also read that the uvular trill -- IPA [ʀ] -- is how they pronounce R's in Switzerland.

So I have a couple questions about this situation:

  1. Would using a trilled R give a learner a marked Bavarian accent?
  2. Is having a marked Bavarian accent a bad thing?
  3. How "bad" is it to pronounce the uvular R as a trill instead of a fricative?

Basically, I can easily pronounce the trilled R from my Spanish experience, and I can sorta do the uvular trill like in French, but the standard uvular fricative is still difficult for me. So I'm looking for guidance on which "temporary" pronunciation I should favor while I practice the standard R.

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+1 for your effort to study German so deliberately. My impression is that people are very, very relaxed about the R usage. – Sebastian Jun 8 '11 at 6:54
I studied linguistics in college; I can't help myself. ;) – Arthaey Angosii Jun 10 '11 at 0:26
French doesn't have an uvular trill, it has an uvular fricative. For me the fricative is pretty easy but the trill is extremely difficult even though I can produce other trills such as the Spanish one. -- Correction: Wikipedia says French does have it in some dialects though I've only heard it in German. – hippietrail Oct 30 '11 at 11:44

2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

1.) Would using a trilled R give a learner a marked Bavarian accent?

No. The most distinct characteristic of Bavarian is its pronunciation of vowels (especially diphthongs). Without them, you won't sound Bavarian at all.

2.) Is having a marked Bavarian accent a bad thing?

Really, really depends on where you're going. Some people are pretty hostile when it comes to Bavarian and in some situations any dialect might just be considered too informal. But I don't think you'll ever going to have this problem. At least if you're not learning German in Bavaria from the scratch - I've heard some funny stories about foreign looking people with strong Bavarian accent. Will give you some startled looks usually. :-)

3.) How "bad" is it to pronounce the uvular R as a trill instead of a fricative?

It's really one of the minor mistakes. Most people won't even notice. Worst that can happen to you is that people find it charming. ;-)

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+1 for "most people won't even notice". There are so many dialects using trilled 'R'. – Takkat♦ Jun 8 '11 at 8:47
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There are even a few dialects using ɻ (American English style R). That's something I wouldn't recommend, though. Has kind of a negative touch and sticks out. – ladybug Jun 8 '11 at 9:04
Thanks for the detailed anwser! I think I'll keep working at the uvular R and not worry too much if it's a trill more often than it's a fricative for now. :) – Arthaey Angosii Jun 10 '11 at 0:26
up vote -3 down vote

I would say both ways to pronounce an r are correct.

I think not mixing up the two pronunciations of o which are not differentiated in writing is more important than the pronunciations of r.

Example.

open like in die Woche [ˈvɔxə]

or closed like oder [ˈoːdər]

BTW: I use this online dictionary to find the phonetic spelling.

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How does this connect to the question? – ladybug Jun 8 '11 at 8:37
Different spellings of r's are rather unimportant – bernd_k Jun 8 '11 at 11:21
Do you mean it's more important to learn to properly differentiate open and closed vowels? Then you should say that in your answer :-) (Incidentally, I think you mean pronunciations and not spellings in your comment.) – Hendrik Vogt Jun 8 '11 at 11:34
@Hendrik Thanks for correction. That's one I easily confuse. – bernd_k Jun 8 '11 at 11:50

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