Perceiving Initial r in names likes 隆介（りゅうすけ） and 綾（りょう）

Question

I've chosen the name a bit at random, but for reason I don't understand I have trouble hearing the initial r-sound on several of my male Japanese students' names. Two examples chosen someone at random: 隆介 and 綾

They say りゅうせすけ and りょう but I hear ゆうすけ and よう

I'm a native English speaker of American English but also had experience hearing German as a child in Germany. Is there some linguistic issue going on here or do I just need to get my ears checked?

I saw this question: Utterance initial [ɾ] which explains some of the mouth position for the sound. But, it doesn't answer what I'm asking.

@snailboat -- maybe, but I'm not hearing an L sound either. I'm hearing nearly no sound where the ラ行 sound should be. — virmaior, May 19 '14 at 23:12
Well, the link wasn't meant to imply that you'd be hearing an L sound. Rather, that in initial position you're hearing a non-tap allophone whose characteristics differ from the usual intervocalic /r/. — , May 19 '14 at 23:14
It depends on the speaker to some extent in terms of how strongly pronounced that initial /r/ sound will be. Hopefully these two audio samples may be of some help: [**Ri**](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ri_(Japanese).ogg), [**Ryu**](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ryu.ogg). — Eiríkr Útlendi, May 20 '14 at 07:46
@EiríkrÚtlendi sorry to say this but those don't help. Did you listen to them before posting? Both have clear articulated r sounds at the beginning. If you can find samples of native speakers who do it as the answer suggests, those would be helpful. — virmaior, May 20 '14 at 07:53
Yes, I had listened to those. Your reply is useful detail from you, as I had no baseline for what you have been hearing. Now at least I have something for comparison. How would your perception of りょ compare to the よ in [this reading of "Yokohama"](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ja-Yokohama.ogg), for instance? (I cannot find any good samples on Wikimedia of anyone saying りょ for contrast.) — Eiríkr Útlendi, May 20 '14 at 08:03
One of the main difficulties is that the cases where I'm hearing it are college students who mumble their own names. I'll try to see if I can get one of them to repeat it. The odd part is that even when they repeat it the ラ front is still nearly inaudible and always for a りょ or りゅ type. By which I mean.. by memory that yokohama reading does not sound very different but it's been a few weeks since the original incident. — virmaior, May 20 '14 at 08:11
I was talking with a speaking partner when he said something that sounded like ようほう to me. We dumbly parroted(get it? pirates?) it back and forth no less than 8 times before I explained in chat that I didn't understand his 用法 of 用法(a pirate's life for me)...it didn't make sense in context. He answered that he was actually saying 両方...every time. — Val, May 20 '14 at 10:03
@Val if you can get a recording of that, that would be awesome. Or better yet a 3-d image of the inside of his mouth. Also, all of my data points for this are guys too. — virmaior, May 20 '14 at 10:18
I'm afraid I don't know him well enough to be imaging the inside of his mouth(teehee). But I could try asking for a speech sample. — Val, May 22 '14 at 03:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 10 '17 at 09:42

For the ラ行, you are curling the tip of your tongue touching the alveolar ridge (between 5 and 4 in the picture). There is a large gaping whole in the middle of your mouth and the slightest build-up of pressure will "break the seal", which means that the airflow is very small, whence the initial r is hardly audible.

If you're pronouncing りゅう in the middle of a word, you can use the existing airflow through the mouth to slam your tongue onto the alveolar ridge to produce a more audible r.

(Please excuse the informal explanation, but I'm lacking vocabulary to make this a more concise explanation.)

alveolar ridge

Perceiving Initial r in names likes 隆介（りゅうすけ） and 綾（りょう）

1 Answers1