Spanish syllable-final r: a better way of understanding it

In this channel I make videos on topics in Spanish language and linguistics. Mostly phonetics and phonology, but also dialectology, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Many of my videos come from questions asked by viewers in the comment section.
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[JuanM]

¡Hola! El sonido de la “r” siempre ha sido un problema para los estudiantes de español. A mí me enseñaron 4 sonidos:
Suave: entre vocales. ( Espere, corazón, erecto)
Media: después de consonante ( brazo, trabe, problema)
Semi fuerte antes de consonante ( termita, puerco, )
Fuerte: al inicio, final y doble (rr). ( Roca, poder, ir, carro, ferrocarril)
Al principio, quizás solo distingan 2 sonidos, fuerte y débil, pero con la práctica, se da uno cuenta que no se pronuncian igual y varían en tono.
¡Excelente tu video!👍🏻👍🏻

[danielcurbelo]

Very good video. Native speaker from Spain. One thing I would add is there is some degree of regional distinction. In my experience, you are more likely to hear Spaniards trill the final R syllable, especially when it is the end of the word, in many circumstances even very casually end of the spectrum.

We speak all of our consonants much more forcefully and deeply than most other dialects (Spaniard pronouncing juego, jarabe, etc is much stronger J than other dialects) so I think this carries over to our syllable final R trill /taps. I notice it often when I speak to other native speakers from other countries.

[wintersleep]

Wonderful video as always! I’d love to see a future one on Spanish intonation or modulation patterns. In particular I’ve noticed that paisa accents from Medellin/Antioquia are very unique and difficult to emulate. They have a way of elongating seemingly random syllables that’s very lilting!

[teamo]

When it takes you years to learn how to trill your r's, but then there are hundreds of papers and a whole book describing when it should be properly used >:'v

[Taynguyen_]

Thanks for being active in the comment section!!! I love your videos!
Can you do an in depth analysis on European spanish vowels and Mexican Spanish vowels? I feel like /ẽ/ is more Mexican and /ε/ is more Madrid

[GyacoYu]

Nice, I can also make a full spectrum between a tap and a coda sibilant r and match them one-to-one.

[kennethschwartz]

I understand about the tap. But when I close my eyes the final R often sounds like a "soft" english R and not a tapped spanish R

[sheldonfrith]

Great work, very helpful. Would love a video on useage of informal (tu/vos) vs formal (usted) in various parts of latin america!

[sortingoutmyclothes]

I believe than in many languages that have both the trilled and the tapped r as allophones of their one rhotic phoneme, this is the way the two are distributed, like in Russian or Swedish.

[jollyjames]

You might consider retitling the video. I doubt it's strictly necessary, but it might be helpful to new viewers who just watched the first video to see the second video in the recommended tab titled something like "footnote to tapped vs trilled r." Again, this is needlessly nitpicky, you just strike me as a guy of small optimizations. Fantastic video as always! Muchas gracias por tu ayuda!

[dmv]

For other forms of content, you should review small segments of speech of spanish youtube videos.

For example, in the video: Hay que aprender a echar la hueva

At 0:11 the speaker says "No me vayan a interrumpir mucho porque tenemos un reloj aquí"

I feel like I should hear the words that start with m, but I don't. Thanks

[driksarkar]

Do you know if there’s a similar phenomenon for r after a consonant? I think I often hear Spanish pr and fr pronounced with trills.

[alantrombla]

Hey, thanks very much for this video! Having finally achieved the ability to vary the force of my trilled r, it's extremely helpful to have a thorough explanation of the spectrum of trill usage by native speakers.

I have a specific question and a topic suggestion for future videos.

My specific question: can you vary the amount of syllable-final "r" trill for humorous or dramatic effect? That is, could I use "too much" trill in order to sound over-serious or pompous? Or use "too little" to sound excessively casual or even flighty?

In general, I'm fascinated by the possibility of "mis-using" language for dramatic or humorous effect, partly because it's just interesting, and partly because my experience in the other non-English language I know a bit about (Japanese) is that this kind of intentional "warping" of the language gets you a lot of credit with native speakers, who appreciate the fact that you've investigated the language to that depth. Unfortunately my Spanish knowledge is insufficient (so far) to help me find any discussion of this kind of thing. So my suggestion is for a video (or series!) that discusses various ways the language can be "stretched" for "extra-lingual" effect.

By the way, in addition to pronunciation, which I think in any language is a rich source for this kind of thing, I also suspect that grammar can be used or mis-used this way. For example, I think it's possible that, in Spanish, the subjunctive could be used "incorrectly" to convey a strong sense of uncertainty or doubt, though I've never been able to confirm this either way.

Thanks again!

[jordanhoover]

Hey there!

Love all the videos, but I have a question on this one: In your /r/ video you explained that /r/ shouldn't just be seen as a single tap of trilled r. If that's the case, then how can it be visualized as a scale? I'm sure I'm misunderstanding what you said so I'd appreciate a clarification. And appreciate the work you're doing!

[asherf]

Excellent video once again. I've been struggling recently with understanding and pronouncing the sounds "ñi" together. Having been taught that ñ is basically just ny, ñi (or heaven forbid ñ followed by a diphthong such as ie or ia) seems impossible to pronounce. Any advice on this topic would be greatly appreciated