"r" in compound nouns

by **Kiru_Biru** » December 26th, 2009, 5:03 pm

If you have an "r" between two words in a compound noun, and the second word starts with a vowel, do you pronounce it as hard or soft?

Example: vooruitzicht

The dilemma to me is that separately you pronounce "voor" with soft "r" and, for compound words, each forming word should have preserved its syllable division, writing manner and pronunciation. Thus, I'd say "vooruitzicht" with soft "r".

At the same time, "r" is placed here before the "u"-vowel, which technically should make "r" hard.
:eek:

Please help with this. Any feedback is much appreciated as always :-D

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by **Grytolle** » December 26th, 2009, 7:11 pm

What is a hard/soft r then? Never heard the term before

by **Kiru_Biru** » December 26th, 2009, 10:39 pm

Grytolle wrote:What is a hard/soft r then? Never heard the term before

Soft "r"as in "maar"
Hard (French) "r" as in "rijden".

Sorry for the home-made terminology

by **Grytolle** » December 26th, 2009, 11:53 pm

Kiru_Biru wrote:
Grytolle wrote:What is a hard/soft r then? Never heard the term before

Soft "r"as in "maar"
Hard (French) "r" as in "rijden".

Sorry for the home-made terminology

so by soft r you mean the one which sounds more or less like the English?

by **Kiru_Biru** » December 29th, 2009, 10:55 pm

Grytolle wrote:so by soft r you mean the one which sounds more or less like the English?

Correct, soft "r" here is English "r". Hard "r" is French "r".

God, I try :cry:

by **Grytolle** » December 30th, 2009, 12:35 am

Kiru_Biru wrote:If you have an "r" between two words in a compound noun, and the second word starts with a vowel, do you pronounce it as hard or soft?

I thought it would be an English r, but now I start doubting myself *passes on that question*

Kiru_Biru wrote:At the same time, "r" is placed here before the "u"-vowel, which technically should make "r" hard.

Could you provide me with some example where that rule applies? Sounds interesting

by **Joke** » December 30th, 2009, 10:47 am

I would pronounce 'vooruitzicht' as if the r is the first letter of the second syllable.
Something like this: [voo - rui - tsicht]
This way my r is more rolling than it would be in the word 'voor', where it is the last letter of a syllable.

Joke

by **Dolce** » January 26th, 2010, 8:52 pm

As far as I know, many Dutch people use 2 types of r.

The French or Spanish r (or the hard r) which is placed in front of a vowel (eg. : regendruppel, verwarming)
The English r (or the soft one) which is placed in front of a consonant or at the end of a word. (eg.: radar, wortel)

Even though it is quite confusing, in 'vooruitzicht' I'd pronounce the r as a hard one. It is quite hard to pronounce it as a soft one, therefore I go for hard.

Plus, the r is placed in front of a vowel..