Old High German <r> and Its Phonetic Identification

Another R-tickle

“…It is assumed to be the /r/ of Old High German and possibly of Proto-Indo-European (cf. Penzl (1961), though there is ample evidence that one source of Ixl in French, at least, was a development from intervocalic M (e.g. Londinium > Londres; Falc'hun 1972), which indicates a tapped apical [r] not a trill.…”

Phonetic Perspectives on West Germanic Consonant Gemination

“…In fact, the most likely primary articulation of Northwest Germanic r may have been an apical one. Penzl (1961) and Moulton (1952) briefly describe, rhymes and orthoepic evidence from the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries suggest both velar and apical articulations of German r. Although this evidence is of too late a date to have much bearing on a theory of consonant gemination, it does provide some support for Penzl's explanation of the side-by-side existence of geminated and ungeminated forms with r in Old High German: "This double development can perhaps be explained by the existence of both lingual [r] and uvular [R] in Old High German: [r] reflected by <rr> with its complete assimilation; [R] reflected by <ri>, where <i> indicates a palatal spirant, which eventually became velar because of the proximity of [R] and developed into a stop" (1961:495). This view assumes that the geminating ; assimilated completely to the preceding "lingual r," presumably due to its relative closeness of articulation, while the uvular r was too different for they to assimilate to, and thus it remained in its simple form.…”

On the Origins of German Uvular [R]: The Yiddish Evidence

“…The conventional textbook view maintained for so long and still encountered even today 17 -the Trautmann-Basilius view, canonized in Adolf Bach's Geschichte der deutschen Sprache-that German's 14 In this we part company with Penzl (1961) and Runge (1974:85-95) but agree with Howell (1987:342): " [T]he assumption that early Germanic r was apical squares better with the evidence provided by the North/West Germanic rhotacism, various r metatheses, and the development of epenthetic vowels between rand adjacent consonants. "…”