Rhotacism (speech impediment)
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In medical contexts, rhotacism (/ˈroʊtəsɪzəm/) is the inability to pronounce or difficulty in pronouncing R sounds.[1] Speech pathologists call the condition de-rhotacization, because the sounds lose their rhotic quality rather than becoming rhotic.[citation needed]
Contents
Language developmentEdit
Rhotic sounds are usually the last ones a child masters. Some people never learn to produce them; they substitute other sounds, such as the velar approximant, the uvular approximant (often called the French R), and the uvular trill.[citation needed]
In English, the most common occurrence of this type is a pronunciation perceived as closer to [w] (typically, though, actually the labiodental approximant [ʋ]), which is known as r-labialisation.[citation needed] This form of rhotacism has often been used in English-language media for comedic effect, since it evokes among English speakers a childlike way of pronouncing the letter R, an example being Elmer Fudd's pronunciation of "rabbit" [ˈɹ̠ʷæbɪ̈t] as "wabbit" [ˈwæbɪ̈t] in Looney Tunes cartoons.[citation needed] Often, people with the condition are mistakenly referred to as a person with a lisp, which is a completely different condition.[citation needed]
Across languagesEdit
Rhotacism is more common among speakers of languages that have a trilled R,[citation needed] such as Arabic, Bulgarian, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish (except in the provinces of Skåne, Halland, Blekinge, Öland and southern Småland).[citation needed]
People with rhotacismEdit
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- Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War.[citation needed]
- Jonathan Ross, British television and radio presenter[2]
- Lucy Worsley[3]
- Andrew Adonis[citation needed]
- Terry Jones[citation needed]
- Roy Jenkins[4]
- Sister Wendy Beckett[citation needed]
- John Berger[citation needed]
- Kay Francis[citation needed]
- Roy Hodgson[4]
- The leader of Hezbollah, Lebanese Sheikh Hasan Nasrallah, has been ridiculed for his rhotacism,[5] particularly his “*Amwīka” and “*Iswā’īl” for Arabic Amrīka ("America"), Isrā’īl ("Israel").[citation needed]
- Isaac Arthur[6]
In popular cultureEdit
- Elmer Fudd in Looney Tunes.[citation needed]
- Barry Kripke in The Big Bang Theory is depicted as having this speech impediment. However, he has problems with both "R" and "L" sounds. His Siri on his iPhone answers him back as "Bawwy". He is last seen in Season 11 episode "The Bow Tie Asymmetry", at the end of the wedding, singing the song "At Last" as "At Wast".[citation needed]
- In the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian, Pilate (played by Michael Palin) is also depicted as having this speech impediment.[citation needed] Because of this, people around him often cannot understand his words, and he is mocked by the townspeople of Jerusalem when he talks to them in the square.[citation needed]
- In the 1986 animated film An American Tail, the character Gussie Mouseheimer (voiced by Madeline Kahn) also replaces 'R' and 'L' with 'W', similar to Elmer Fudd, especially when saying the word 'rally', pronouncing it as 'wawwy'.[citation needed]
- In the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, Madeline Kahn again played a character with a speech impediment, this time the singer Lili von Shtüpp, the "Teutonic Titwillow".[citation needed]
- In the 1987 film The Princess Bride, the character known as The Impressive Clergyman (played by Peter Cook), also has problems with multiple sounds, including "R" and "L", pronouncing "marriage" as "mawwage".[7]
- Tony Angelino, a one-time character from Only Fools and Horses, suffered from rhotacism, becoming apparent during his stage performance of the Roy Orbison song "Crying".[citation needed]
- Homestar Runner from Homestar Runner.[citation needed]
- Baby Bear in Sesame Street also has this trait.[citation needed]
- Ming-Ming in Wonder Pets![citation needed]
- Jimmy Five from Monica's Gang replaces 'R' with 'W' in the English version, except for the 'R' in words like 'car' or 'hair'. In the original Portuguese version, he replaces 'R' with 'L'.[citation needed]
See alsoEdit
| Look up rhotacism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Lambdacism, the equivalent condition with L /l/.
- Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Stinchfield, Sara M (1933). "Speech Disorders: A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY of the Various Defects of Speech". Routledge. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
rhotacism for difficulty on the r sounds
- ^ Radio's New Wave: Global Sound in the Digital Era. Routledge. 2013. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-136-44630-6.
- ^ Jones, Ellen E. (6 April 2014). "Lucy Worsley: The TV historian on BBC's The First Georgians, David Starkey and why she'll never appear on Strictly Come Dancing". The Independent. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
- ^ a b Finnerty, Deirdre (3 May 2012). "Roy Hodgson: Is it wrong to mock the way he speaks?". BBC News. Retrieved 14 September 2018.
- ^ Arsan, Andrew (2018). Lebanon: A Country in Fragments. London: Hurst & Company. ISBN 978-1-84904-700-5.
- ^ Arthur, Isaac (8 April 2016). Fermi Paradox: The Dyson Dilemma v2.0. YouTube. Event occurs at 0:54. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- ^ "The Princess Bride (1987)". IMDb. Retrieved 21 January 2019.