{"id":480,"date":"2012-04-15T22:53:56","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T22:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=480"},"modified":"2012-04-15T22:53:56","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T22:53:56","slug":"sounds-r-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/04\/15\/sounds-r-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Sounds R Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are basicaly two ways of pronouncing the letter <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">R<\/span> in Danish: as a consonant and as a vowel. As a sound you can\u2019t sing and as one you can make part of a melody\u2026<\/p>\n<p>If that sounds strange, just think about British English: In words like <em>random<\/em> and <em>princess<\/em>, where R introduces a vowel (\u2019a\u2019 and \u2019i\u2019, respectively), it has a different sound than in words like <em>your<\/em> and <em>beer<\/em>, where it follows a vowel. In the latter position, it is actually a vowel that merges with the preceding sound, making them a diphtong<span style=\"color: #999999\"> (two vowels with a totally smooth transition)<\/span>: [yo\u1d43\u02b0], [bee\u1d43\u02b0].<\/p>\n<p>In Danish, the R-in-front sounds like a very timid beginning of a growl. It is actually the \u201dthroat R\u201d of German or French, just with a much weaker pronunciation: <strong>rasende<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>prins<\/strong> (furious prince).<\/p>\n<p>The Danish \u201dR-behind\u201d sounds a lot like its British cousin, but perhaps a bit more aw-ish. Say \u2019or\u2019 like a Londonder (NO R, Americans!), and you\u2019ll get it: <strong>k\u00e6r<\/strong> [KE\u1d52\u02b3] \u2019dear\u2019, <strong>bur<\/strong> [BOO\u1d52\u02b3] \u2019cage\u2019, <strong>biler<\/strong> [BEEL-or] \u2019cars\u2019, <strong>hare<\/strong> [HAH-or] \u2019hare\u2019.<br \/>\nAs the last two examples show, the weak combination ER (or RE) becomes its own \u201dor\u201d syllable. Unfortunately, this creates a lot of mess: Many Danes mix up the writings of word inflections like <strong>at studere<\/strong> [stooDEH-or] \u2019to study\u2019 and <strong>studerer<\/strong> [stooDEH-or] \u2019studies\u2019. They sound just the same\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Also note that the Danish A sound \u2013 which is usually just as light as the English A in <em>cat<\/em> \u2013 tends to become darker next to an R: <strong>Mads<\/strong> [a man\u2019s name; light A] \u2013 <strong>Mars<\/strong> [the planet; dark A]. (There\u2019s something similar going on in English \u2013 notice how the sound changes from <em>cat<\/em>\u00a0to <em>car<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<p>In the combination AR the R very often disappears entirely: <strong>Far<\/strong> (father) sounds like \u201dfah\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Danish children are somehow trying to compensate for their fathers\u2019 lost R\u2019s, for when they cry for their <strong>mor<\/strong> (mother), they usually split the diphtong entirely: <strong>mo-a!<\/strong> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Keep an ear on the R\u2019s in this 1972 video of Danish pop star Kim Larsen jamming with his band Gasolin:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pphVUptviPg\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pphVUptviPg<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Nanna med den <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span>\u00f8de mund og lange so<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span>te negle\u2026 Hun d<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span>ikker og hun e<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span> lidt dum \u2013 s\u00e5 hun e<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span> glad\u2026 \u00c5h, det\u2019 s\u00e5 t<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">r<\/span>ist, sig<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">er<\/span> de\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Nanna with the red mouth and long black nails\u2026 She\u2019s drinking and she\u2019s a bit stupid \u2013 so she\u2019s happy\u2026 Oh, it\u2019s so sad, they say\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are basicaly two ways of pronouncing the letter R in Danish: as a consonant and as a vowel. As a sound you can\u2019t sing and as one you can make part of a melody\u2026 If that sounds strange, just think about British English: In words like random and princess, where R introduces a vowel&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/04\/15\/sounds-r-us\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}