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I don't live in English-speaking country. I try to learn English on my own. I am interested in aquisition the General American accent (GA). My question is about the American /r/ consonant ([ɹ]) and the American r-colored vowels ([ɚ]).

I have a problem with realization of the /r/ English phonem. I know that exist 10-11 or even more options to articulate this sound, but the retroflex and the bunched (aka molar, retracted, dorsal) versions are the most famous. I have learned the retroflex version of this sound. I am OK with the [ɻ], alveolar and postalveolar realizations.
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Now my main interest is the bunched /r/. I have tried many times to pronounce this for 3-4 weeks but I can't. I went through all the videos and articles about this topic that I found on the Internet. I have seen the MRI. The tongue tip must not be curl and lift up, the tip of the tongue should be located at the bottom or just neutral. Each time I try the tip my tongue wants to go up. If I hold the tip of my tongue and don't lift it up then I'm making completely different sound.

bunched r 1

So, how to pronounce the clear "bunched /r/" without lifting the tip?

What I've tried: I looked at my mouth with a flashlight in a mirror, I used a pencil, I used a spoon.

Russian language is my native tongue. I don't have speech defects in my native language.

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    There are many Americans who never use the bunched /r/ (and even though these sounds are made in quite different ways, they are fairly difficult to distinguish). So to speak with an authentic American accent, you only need to learn one of these /r/s.
    – Peter Shor
    Jul 4, 2021 at 12:17
  • Thank you for your comment Peter. I didn't know it
    – Victor Chernov
    Jul 4, 2021 at 14:24
  • Can you please give any advices about the bunched /r/ Peter?
    – Victor Chernov
    Jul 4, 2021 at 15:00
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    In your post, you seem to be worried about getting the position of the tip of your tongue correct. That doesn't matter for the bunched /r/; what matters is the position is the position of the back and sides of your tongue (where it touches the molars).
    – Peter Shor
    Jul 5, 2021 at 12:40
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    @Mitch: the retroflex and bunched /r/ are allophones in American English, so it doesn't matter which you use. I use the bunched /r/ after /k/s and /g/s (as in grove) and the retroflex /r/ after /t/ and /d/ (as in trip). And in words like emperor, where you have two /r/s one after the other, I usually use one of each. But I once did a web search looking at advice Americans gave as to when to use these two different /r/s, and the advice differed wildly.
    – Peter Shor
    Mar 31, 2022 at 16:51

1 Answer 1

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Retroflex and bunched /r/ are on a continuum (see the image below). If you can already produce retroflex /r/, start with a sustained [ɻ] and then tense up the tongue body so that it turns from concave to convex. I don't think you have to focus on the tip because raising the body inevitably lowers it anyway. The important thing is that the overall anteroposterior position of the tongue in relation to the oral cavity doesn't change.

Catford recommends first producing a uvular trill and then moving the tongue body forward (quoted here), so you may also try that if you know how to produce [ʀ].

I must also note that if you can already produce either variant there's not much use in being able to produce the other, unless you're practicing it purely for fun, because they sound almost the same. Also it's not the case that bunched /r/ is "the American /r/"; both retroflex and bunched /r/ are found in both British and American English.

From Tiede (2007): From Tiede (2007)

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  • They're on a continuum? I use both the bunched and the retroflex /r/, and as far as I can tell, you can't make an American-sounding /r/ with any intermediate tongue position. And nothing I've read says they're on a continuum. I'll agree the pictures you've included make it look like they are, but I think that's misleading because you can't see the third dimension.
    – Peter Shor
    Jul 4, 2021 at 12:34
  • I can switch back and forth between retroflex and bunched /r/ while continuously producing it, and the timbre hardly changes. I don't find it misleading at all.
    – Nardog
    Jul 4, 2021 at 12:38
  • When I try that, the sound I make when my tongue is in between these positions is more like /ʒ/ than /r/ (on the other hand, it's vaguely possible may have figured out how to make the ř in Dvořák by accident).
    – Peter Shor
    Jul 4, 2021 at 12:44
  • Nardog thanks for your answer. Yes, I do it for fun. I think I can produce a uvular trill but moving forward doesn't help. I don't know why
    – Victor Chernov
    Jul 4, 2021 at 13:12
  • What about the first option then?
    – Nardog
    Jul 5, 2021 at 0:48

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