Dental Sonorants or Approximants

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, David Costa wrote:
> They're all reflexes of Proto-Eastern Algonquian */r/.  Some poorly attested
> Algonquian languages of Maryland even have 'z' for this sound. No voiced
> interdental fricatives, however.

The OP dh sounds to some extent like edh, but it actually seems to be some
sort of post-alveolar lateral.  Maybe that's where the z comes from, too.

The shift of intervocalic s (probably always z) to r is fairly widely
attested, e.g., in Latin, where, as I understand it, the infinitive in -re
is from an old locative in *se (or maybe it was *si).  And Norse -Vr
masculine singulars and plurals are from *-Vz.  As I understand it there a
sort of continuum from fricative to trill - trilling is exagerated
friction?  However, I don't think any of the Siouan r's are trilled, just
tapped.