kartavlenie

[Alina Israeli]

>Just one question : the Spanish or Italian [r] is the same as
>Russian. Is the phenomenon of kartavanie there as common as in Russia?

Would have to ask natives, but I did encounter occasional Italians
who used the French [r].

A totally unconnected to the Russian R but an interesting phonetic
tidbit (related to the velarisation): Since French language does not
have a velar [x], instead of SchumaCHer, the French pronouncem it as
if it were spelled Schumareur.

>One the other side, Jewish Russian speakers are said to use the velar
>[r] more often.

That was possibly the case for those Jews for whom Russian was not
the first language, in other words those who were raised in the pale
and were native speakers of Yiddish, as Isaac Levitan was, for
example, although I never came across any testimony as to his
pronuciation in Russian. If it was not quite correct either Chekhov
or Paustovskij might have noticed.

--
__________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:  (202) 885-2387
fax:    (202) 885-1076

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