R after P, T, K...

[Swoka Swizaw]

Does anyone else pronounce words like utral and 'akra where the plosive fuses with the 'R'? I have the hardest time leaving the plosives un-aspirated (utral is [u.tral] and 'akra is ['a.kra]). Can my technical mispronunciation be permitted?

[Plumps]

I know exactly what you mean. I notice the same quirk with words like ikran, netrìp etc.

I think this is permissible. The faster you speak, the more syllables fuse together anyway
Only in very careful speech would you pay attention to correct syllabification. With your examples, at least that is clear because *kr- and *tr- are not permissible intial consonant clusters.

Think of a word like wutso ... in our writing system (not the scientific, where ts = c would make the distinction clear) this could be wut.so or (correctly) wu.tso – I don't think one would hear the difference very much in fast speech.

[Swoka Swizaw]

I know exactly what you mean. I notice the same quirk with words like ikran, netrìp etc.

I think this is permissible. The faster you speak, the more syllables fuse together anyway
Only in very careful speech would you pay attention to correct syllabification. With your examples, at least that is clear because *kr- and *tr- are not permissible intial consonant clusters.

Thanks, maPlumps. To be sure, though, my issue is not how I speak, speed or otherwise. I have a hard time with /r/ as it is, because of my speech impediment. Maybe you've encountered me talking about it. I can pronounce /r/, but with issues and /rr/ is out of the question, as I have to use the uvular trill, instead. I find that I pronounce /r/ after plosives by fusion, like in Spanish. After /n/ is hard and after /l/ is harder, as I sound like I pronounce the voiced dental fricative, [D], between them to accomplish a "glide".

[Swoka Swizaw]

I do this with /l/, /y/ and /w/, as well...zekwä is /ze.kwä/ and mikyun is /mi.kyun/. But, tatlam is easy to pronounce correctly. I suppose since tl- never occurs at the start of a syllable in English. Come to think of it, back to the original point, /sr/ and /tsr/ are hard for me, too.

[Irtaviš Ačankif]

I actually pronounce zekwä as /zek.kwä/ with a geminated consonant...don't know why I pronounce it like that. No problems with mikyun.

Interestingly, tatlam always ends up having a tlh-affricate in it: [ta.tɬam], like the sound in Klingon and Tlingit. Almost impossible to get rid of it. My tongue kinda gets stuck on itself each time I try to not turn the L into a fricative mushed with the T.