Rhotacism (Speech Impediment)

In medical contexts, rhotacism (/ˈroʊtəsɪzm' in 'rhythm'">əm/) is the inability to pronounce or difficulty in pronouncing r sounds. Speech pathologists call the condition de-rhotacism, or de-rhotacization, because the sounds lose their rhotic quality rather than becoming rhotic.

Language development

Rhotic sounds are usually the last ones a child masters. Some people never learn to produce them; they substitute other sounds, such as the velar approximant, the uvular approximant (often called the French R), and the uvular trill.

In English, the most common occurrence of this type is a pronunciation perceived as closer to [w] (typically, though, actually the labiodental approximant [ʋ]), which is known as r-labialisation. This form of rhotacism has often been used in English-language media for comedic effect, since it evokes among English speakers a childlike way of pronouncing the letter R, an example being Elmer Fudd's pronunciation of "rabbit" [ˈɹ̠ʷæbɪ̈t] as "wabbit" [ˈwæbɪ̈t] in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. Often, people with the condition are mistakenly referred to as a person with a lisp, which is a different speech pattern.

Across languages

Rhotacism is more common among speakers of languages that have a trilled R, such as Afrikaans, Arabic, Armenian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Frisian, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Macedonian, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Irish, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish (except in the provinces of Skåne, Halland, Blekinge, Öland and southern Småland), Ukrainian, Welsh.

In the Czech language there is a specific type of rhotacism called rotacismus bohemicus which is an inability to pronounce the specific sound /ř/ [r̝] which is even more stressed than R sound. (For more info about this letter see voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar trills.)

Public personalities with rhotacism

• Isaac Arthur
• Sister Wendy Beckett
• John Berger
• Oliver Sacks
• Jeremy Brett
• Vojislav Šešelj
• Yaron Brook
• Teresa Leger Fernandez, 2020 candidate for New Mexico's 3rd Congressional District
• Kay Francis
• Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
• King George VI of the United Kingdom
• Roy Hodgson
• Roy Jenkins
• Terry Jones, member of the Monty Python comedy troupe
• Edward Ka-Spel
• Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary and Soviet leader
• Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Senior British Army officer who fought in both the First World War and the Second World War.
• The leader of Hezbollah, Lebanese Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has been ridiculed for his rhotacism, particularly his "*Amwīka" and "*Iswā'īl" for Arabic Amrīka ("America"), Isrā'īl ("Israel").
• Irina Odoyevtseva
• Chris Packham, British naturalist and television presenter
• Jonathan Ross, British television and radio presenter
• Matt Bellamy, British musician
• Chris "Mad Dog" Russo
• Lucy Worsley
• Julio Cortázar

In popular culture

• In the Only Fools and Horses episode Stage Fright, singer Tony Angelino suffers from the impediment, but completes his set alongside Del Boy's wife, Raquel, the set comprising "Cwying", "Please Welease Me", "Congwatulations", and "The Gween, Gween Gwass of Home", followed (according to Rodney) by a medley of "wock and woll".
• Angel Batista from Dexter.
• Elmer Fudd in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
• Barry Kripke in The Big Bang Theory is depicted as having this speech impediment. However, he has problems with both "R" and "L" sounds. His Siri on his iPhone answers him back as "Bawwy". He is last seen in season 11 episode "The Bow Tie Asymmetry", at the end of the wedding, singing the song "At Last" as "At Wast".
• In the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian, Pilate (played by Michael Palin) is also depicted as having this speech impediment, and humorously appears to be unaware of it. Because of this, people around him often cannot understand his words, and he is mocked by the townspeople of Jerusalem when he talks to them in the square.
• In the 1986 animated film An American Tail, the character Gussie Mouseheimer (voiced by Madeline Kahn) also replaces 'R' and 'L' with 'W', similar to Elmer Fudd, especially when saying the word 'rally', pronouncing it as 'wawwy'.
• In the 1974 film Blazing Saddles, Madeline Kahn again played a character with a speech impediment, this time the singer Lili von Shtüpp, the "Teutonic Titwillow".
• Rick from The Young Ones
• In the 1987 film The Princess Bride, the character known as the Impressive Clergyman (played by Peter Cook), also has problems with multiple sounds, including "R" and "L", pronouncing "marriage" as "mawwage".
• Homestar Runner from Homestar Runner.
• Baby Bear in Sesame Street also has this trait.
• Ming-Ming in Wonder Pets!
• Jimmy Five from Monica's Gang replaces 'R' with 'W' in the English version, except for the 'R' in words like 'car' or 'hair'. In the original Portuguese version, he replaces 'R' with 'L'.
• Napoleon Brie in the original Biker Mice from Mars.
• Greta from the Spyro series speaks this way in all of her appearances. Her brother Handel possesses an identical speech impediment in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, but not in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! or the Spyro Reignited Trilogy
• Beck in the 2019 song "Uneventful Days", he pronounces the word "neverending" with a rhotic R.
• Alexandra Kristoff, one of Katlin Manchester's alter-egos.
• In the 2019 English localization and voicework for Trials of Mana, Charlotte was given a speech quirk that replaces both L and R with W, also twisting other words to read correctly with the same quirk (e.g. "It could be dangewous. I can't wet Heath face it awone!").
• In the 2008 video game Fallout 3, a character named Billy is nicknamed Biwwy for his speech impediment.

See also

Look up rhotacism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Lambdacism, the equivalent condition with L /l/
• Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers