Rolling your R's

[alloydog]

... and I mean the letter R, not the bit you sit on!

OK, this isn't about speaking English, but...

I'm a native English speaker, trying to learn Finnish. Apart from the grammar being almost back-to-front when compared to English, one of my sticking points is the letter R.

In Finnish, as with a lot of other languages, it is rolled, and almost pronounced as "aarrrr". English, especially southern English, it is a flat "aaah".

I've been told it rolled on the tip of the tongue. But, when I try, it seems to happen at the sides.

Any pointers for practicing rolling me, Rs?

**As an aside, it reminds me of when I had a holiday in Croatia. I went on a boat trip to Rovinj. The tour guide on the boat announced that "We are now coming to Rovinj." he went onto add that "It is called 'Rovinj!'. Our English friends have aproblem with this name, they say 'Rovinj'. Now, will all our English friends say after me R~R~Rovinj!"

 

[texholdem]

A nice example of rolled R:

youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88

"Non, Je ne regrette rien" by Edith Piaf.

 

[BobK]

:down: Piaf's r is not produced with the tongue at all. What trills is her uvula. The English rolled r (which not all speakers do) is not uvular. (PS - see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvula )

b