Puerto Rican /r/

The /r/ of Puerto Rico can be an alveolar flap or trill. This is the same in other varieties of Spanish. However, the /r/ can also be realized with a voiceless velar fricative. The use of the voiceless velar fricative for the /r/ is limited to Puerto Rico.

The voiceless velar fricative is a consonant of Spanish. It occurs in words such as gelatina (gelatin), jardín (garden) and juguete (toy). However, the same sound can be used in Puerto Rican Spanish for the /r/. In Puerto Rican Spanish, the voiceless velar fricative can occur in the following words:

carro (car)

hierro (iron)

perro (dog)

razón (reason)

rey (king)

río (river)

roca (rock)

rueda (wheel)

tierra (land)

torre (tower)

In Puerto Rico, the voiceless velar fricative can be used instead of the voiced alveolar trill. However, in words such as caro (gold), oro (gold) and pero (but), all Spanish dialects use the alveolar flap. The alveolar flap of Spanish only occurs intervocalically.

Puerto Rican Spanish is quite different from other varieties of Spanish. Many Puerto Ricans use the voiceless velar fricative instead of the voiced alveolar trill in words such as those in the list above. The use of the voiceless velar fricative in such words is distinctive of Puerto Rican Spanish.

Hungarian Word-Final Vowels

Hungarian has fourteen vowel phonemes. Certain dialects have fifteen, but the number is fourteen in the standard language. The fourteen vowel phonemes can be classified on the basis of length. Seven are short, and seven are long. The front vowels consist of four pairs, and the back vowels consist of three.

Word-final vowels can be short or long. However, the mid front rounded vowel and mid back rounded vowels are always long when they are word-final. For example, the Hungarian word for snow is hó and the word for grape is szőlő. This restriction does not apply to the other vowels. The word for village is falu and the word for menu is menü.

The vowels of Hungarian can be divided into seven pairs that are short and long. These vowels can appear in all word-positions with the exception of two vowels, the mid front rounded long and mid back rounded long vowels.. These two vowels never appear in word-final position. In word-final position, the vowel length of the Hungarian mid vowels is neutralized.