ON THE LETTER ' R. 
BY R. F. WEYMOUTH, M.A. 
Though a great deal has been wi-itten on the subject of the present 
paper, there yet remain several particulars which seem to deserve 
fuller discussion, and to which, withoiit further preface, I propose 
now to direct attention. 
The first point to be noticed is that as in Tamul there are three rs, 
as in Hindostani, Armenian, and several Slavonic dialects, there are 
two, so also we have two in English. Any one who pronounces the 
word rear, will recognize the fact that the r before a vowel is more 
forcibly sounded than the r following a vowel ; and when we pronounce 
courier or prove, we perceive that the r between two vowels, or follow- 
ing a mute has a sound which an Englishman rarely or never gives it 
at the end of a syllable. In these words we " roll the r." The ex- 
istence of these two sounds in English is recognized by Ben Jonson 
in his English Grammar, where he says " i2 is the dogs letter, and 
hurreth in the sound ; the tongue striking the inner palate with a 
trembling about the teeth." 
But there is yet a third sound with which our ears cannot be alto- 
gether unfamiliar, that of the r as pronounced by the Parisians and 
in many other parts of France. Here the tongue does not vibrate, but 
the sound proceeds, at least chiefly, from the throat. Indeed, so de- 
cided a guttural is this French r, that Mons. De la Villemarqud uses it 
with the addition of 'A to represent the Celtic ch. In his Breton Poems 
he gives the names Tudvoulch and Kevoulch in his translation as 
Tudvoulr'h and Kevoulr'h, and Unhwch as Unour'h. (Bardes 
Bretons, pp. 269, and 39.) It is apparently of the same sound that 
