page_title: Voiced uvular trill
section_title: Occurrence
hierarchical_section_title: Voiced uvular trill / Occurrence
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the distribution of uvular/dorsal rhotics (e.g. [ʁ ʀ χ]) in northwestern continental Europe. &#160;&#160; not usual &#160;&#160; only in some educated speech &#160;&#160; usual in educated speech &#160;&#160; general
context_page_description: The voiced uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨⟩, a small capital letter R. This consonant is one of several collectively called guttural R.
context_section_description: There are two main theories regarding the origination of the uvular trill in European languages. According to one theory, the uvular trill originated in Standard French around the 17th century and spread to the standard varieties of German, Danish, Portuguese and some of those of Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. It is also present in other areas of Europe, but it is not clear if such pronunciations are due to French influence. In most cases, varieties have shifted the sound to a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or a voiced uvular approximant [ʁ̞].
  The other main theory is that the uvular R originated within Germanic languages by the weakening of the alveolar R, which was replaced by an imitation of the alveolar R (vocalisation). Against the "French origin" theory, it is said that there are many signs that the uvular R existed in some German dialects long before the 17th century. 
  Apart from modern Europe, uvular R also exists in some Semitic languages, including North Mesopotamian Arabic and probably Tiberian Hebrew.
caption: Distribution of guttural r (such as [ʁ ʀ χ]) in Europe in the mid-20th century.[2]   not usual   only in some educated speech   usual in educated speech   general
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