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Frog in the throat

Posted by Smokey Stover on September 10, 2009 at 02:31

In Reply to: Frog in the throat posted by David FG on September 09, 2009 at 17:06:

: : Frog in the throat

: : I have heard that this is an old English saying. Parisians still use their throat to make the R sound. And as you may know, the French are often given the slang name of Frogs.

: : England had several French monarchs and was occupied by the French. I have always heard that when an Englishman had a sore throat, they would say they had a 'frog' or a Frenchman, in their throat.

: Leaving aside any other consideration, isn't the sound of the 'trilled' or 'rolled' R of the French (and other languages) made with the tongue? I speak Irish (which also has a voiced 'R') and I don't make the sound with my throat.

: DFG

The frog in the throat is covered elsewhere on this site. See:

www.phrases.org.uk meanings 143825.html

I don't think "trilled r" and "rolled r" mean the same thing to everyone, especially if they are equated with the uvular r used in French. The French r is often called a "guttural r," meaning an r made in the throat. The American r, sometimes called an alveolar r, is made with the tongue and palate. The French r uses the tongue and palate also, but with a different part of the tongue (the dorsum) approaching the back part (velar) of the palate, that is the soft palate. Done in a certain way, this causes the uvula to oscillate as in a French r. Done in a different way it produces the voiceless velar fricative sometimes spelled kh, or in German, ch.

I believe that a "rolled r" is what Americans call the kind of r they are said to use in Scotland. You've doubtless heard the dreadful joke about the American who goes into a Scottish bar, and after placing his order tells the barmaid, "I love the way you roll your r's." She replies, "Thank you, sir, I think it's these high heels I'm wearin'."
SS

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