Rr (digraph)

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Rr is a digraph which occurs in several natural languages.

In the English language, "rr" is usually pronounced equivalently to "r". The two are distinguished only on an etymological basis, "rr" normally appearing in words of Latin or Romance origin, and "rrh" in words of ancient Greek origin. It is quite a common digraph, found in words as diverse as arrest, carry, and sorry. Some words with "rr" are relatively recent loanwords from other languages; examples include burro from Spanish. It is often used in impromptu pronunciation guides to denote either an alveolar tap or an alveolar trill.

In several European languages, such as Spanish, Italian or Albanian, "rr" represents the alveolar trill /r/ and contrasts with the single "r", which represents the alveolar tap /ɾ/. (In Spanish, single "r" also represents the alveolar trill at the beginning of words or syllables.) In Italian, "rr" is furthermore a geminate (long) consonant /rː/.

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Last updated on Sunday February 17, 2008 at 12:55:26 PST (GMT -0800)
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