Rhotacism
Categories: Historical linguistics | Sociolinguistics | Phonetics
Rhotacism may refer to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r:
- the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;
- conversely, the inability or difficulty in pronouncing r.
- the conversion of another consonant, e.g., s, into r.
The term comes from the Greek rho, meaning "r".
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Orthoepy
In medicine rhotacism is the inability or difficulty in pronouncing the sound "r". One alleged sufferer is the British TV personality Jonathan Ross, who pronounces his own surname more like "Woss", or the internet character Homestar Runner, who pronounces his name as "Homestaw Wunnew".
Phonetics
In Indo-European languages, rhotacism can be seen in a conversion of another consonant — for instance "s" or "d" or "n" to "r" in many words.
Albanian
Albanian rhotacism changes "n" to "r";
- ranë (from the Latin arena) vs rërë (= "sand")
- Valona (from the Latin Avlona) vs Vlora (a town in Southern Albania)
that change took place in the 13th century in the southern (Tosk) dialects, which now dominate in the literary language. The Northern Gheg dialects, also spoken in Kosovo and Western Macedonia, keep the original "n". Hence "armik" (dictionary entry for "enemy") is "anmik" in Gheg.
Dutch
- vriezen vs gevroren (from Germanic *friusana vs *fruzenaz)
Compare also Gothic dags with Old Norse dagr (from Germanic *dagaz)
English
- was vs were (from Germanic *was vs *wēzun)
- lose vs forlorn (from Germanic *liusana vs *luzenaz)
Japanese
The Japanese language does not have the phoneme 'L' (and hence does not have means to record it). Therefore loanwords with "L" in the original language have it relpaced with "R"; see Engrish for some examples. Accordingly, Japanese people are faced with a rhotacism-type trouble in pronouncing "L".
Latin
- flos (nominative) vs florem (accusative) (Old Latin flosem)
- genus (nominative) vs generis (genitive) (from *geneses, cf Sanskrit janasas)
- corroborare vs robustus (verb from *conrobosare)
- de iure vs iustus (from de iouse)
- ero vs est (from eso)
Neapolitan
In Neapolitan rhotacism is seen in a shift from the sound of "d" to an "r" sound:
(Italian vs Neapolitan)
- medesimo vs meresemo
- diaspora vs riaspro
and, to a lesser extent, from the sound of an "l" to an "r" sound:
- albero vs arvero
- ultimo vs urdemo
Quenya
Although it is not an Indo-European language, actually not a natural language at all, J.R.R. Tolkien's Quenya converts -s to -r for historical reasons:
- kár "head" vs kas-, e.g. *casi "heads". Source: The Etymologies (1930s Quenya).
- mar "dwelling of men, the Earth, -land" vs mas-, e.g. *masen "of dwelling". Source: The Book of Lost Tales I (1910s Quenya).
Romanian
Romanian rhotacism consists of a shift from intervocalic "l" to "r" and "n" to "r".
Thus, Latin caelum became Romanian cer and Latin "fenestra" becomes Romanian "fereastră".
Some northern Romanian dialects and Istro-Romanian also further transformed all intervocalic "n" into "r". For example, Latin bonus became Istro-Romanian bur.
Sanskrit
Words ending in -s other than -as become -r in sandhi with a voiced consonant:
- naus (before p/t/k) vs naur bharati
- agnis (before p/t/k) vs agnir mata
This is not a case of rhotacism proper, since r and s are simply allophones in those positions.
Slovene
Slovenian rhotacism consists of shift from [Z] (like in English vision) to vibrating [r]:
- moreš from možešь
- kdor from kъtože
Slovenian rhotacism is already visible in the Freising manuscripts, a written document from the 10th century.
The same shift occurred in single words in other South Slavic languages.
The hypothesis about the nature of rhotacism and zetacism
The phonetic coincidence r/l - š/s (z) can be explained by about existence of the special sound sibiliant-vibrant rz / rs . This sound could pass in different languages either in r/l or in s/š. Such supposition can be confirmed by Polish and Czech grammar which provide designation rz and ř for the certain phoneme which has replaced in the Czech and Polish languages Proto-Slavic soft r’. In the Czech language ř corresponds to sounds rž and rš, and Polish rz does to sounds ž and š. Existence of the especial sound similar to r is confirmed also with the Armenian spelling which distinguishes two sounds, r and rr (long). Just the long rr is being used for the spelling of Arm. antar “forest” by what is evident that not usual sonorous r took place in language of Proto-Armenians but some other sound. Arm. antar is corresponded Gagauz andyz “bush” . This and other facts of Turkic languages say in favour of the hypothesis of the existing of the sound rz / rs in Turkic language. Turkish, who had moved to Europe from Asia, have brought this feature of the phonetics as well there. The ancient ancestors of Mongols and Tungus, having borrowed many Turkic words, articulated this sound from the very beginning as r while Bulgars have simplified the pronunciation of rz / rs to usual r much later. The identical result of replacement of the complex sound in the simpler one gives the grounds to speak now about imaginary Bulgarian-Mongolian connections which actually never had places.
Some phonetic facts of the Ukrainian language also can testify for the benefit of existence of a sound rz in it: Ukr. žerst’- Rus. žest’ “tin-plate”. This word is loaned from the Turkic languages where it matters “copper, a brass ” and has forms jes, zes, zis, etc. The fact of loan of the Ukrainian word from one of the Turkic languages can give explanations of presence of this sound in it, if the loan has taken place in time of when the sound rz still existed in any of the Turkic languages. That is, Turkic proto-form can be deduced as *zerz. Then, at existence of the parallel form *zelz, one can explain the not clear till now etymology of Old Slavic *zelzo "iron". English iron and German Eisen "iron" which manifest rhotacism are loaned from Turkic languages too.
Links
Scythian timesde:Rhotazismus fr:Rhotacisme pl:Rotacyzm ru:Ротацизм sv:rhotacism