A good deal of the time I hear Portuguese speakers pronounce the initial or double R as the French do - as voiced and guttural. But almost just as often I hear an unvoiced guttural sound as something that might be heard in Dutch. And sometimes I also even hear it rolled as how it is in Spanish. (For those wanting a more aural demonstration, here’s a voice clip of me saying the word “rei” in each R in order of having been mentioned). So my first question is: in what situations would each R be heard more and to what extent could a non-native speaker use any of them without coming off as strange?
And a double question. Regarding how sounds change between words, normally how does S "mush” into a following R? Whether rolled or guttural, how would “os radicais” usually be pronounced?
oozh radicais or
oosh radicais?
There’s not only that, but also how the R comes up in the following words: Israel, honrar, palrar.
@Jemmy, yes, all of these are possible variations today, although historically, the standard was for the R to sound rolled. Each person will usually be consistent in how they pronounce the R. For example, if one comes from a region or family where the rolled R is the default, they’ll tend to pronounce all Rs like that; it wouldn’t normally be a context-dependent choice. So, Israel, honrar and palrar may be pronunced differently by different speakers, as long as they all respect that those are hard (double) R sounds. Also, before an R, the default sound of the S would be ‘sh’, but it might also sound like ‘zh’ sometimes in faster, connected speech.
Regarding non-native speakers, many of them might end up being more exposed to the guttural R nowadays, since it’s part of the ‘mainstream’ European Portuguese accent. Still, their pronunciation might also be affected by their respective native languages or other factors, such as the type of R pronounced by their Portuguese relatives, or in the region in which they live or plan to live. I’d say consistency is also the thing to keep in mind for them. Ultimately, the most important thing is to make themselves understood
It is good to know that the rolled r is acceptable. I do not like the sound of the guttural r, especially with short words such as Rui and ruim. Unfortunately for me, most people I have met in Castelo Branco, where I live, use the guttural r. But of course they still understand what I mean when I use the rolled r.
