Instead replacing it with a L sound.
2007-07-21 22:38:12 · 6 answers · asked by a 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Other - Cultures & Groups
Angelsilverstar is right, Japanese switch L for R because their syllabic alphabet does not contain the L sound. Eg. They have "ra, ri, ru, re, ro" but not "la, li, lu, le, lo" so they basically never learn how to produce that sound until they learn another language.
As for Chinese it is true, they do switch R for L and I am not sure but I think it has something to do with the same, Mandarin has a lot of L sounds "Liu" "Lao", etc. while the R sounds are really weak and mostly pronounced pressing the tongue against the palate, so they might find it easier to use L instead of R, when speaking a foreign language.
2007-07-21 23:41:24 · answer #1 · answered by Vago 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The sound "r" doesn't exist in all languages, so it's natural that some people have problems making that sound. We learn sounds when we're little kids and of course we only learn the sounds that we hear when growing up. It's much harder to learn new sounds later in life.
English people can't make certains sounds either, "Å" for example, simply because it doesn't exist in English.
2007-07-22 07:41:39 · answer #2 · answered by undir 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know, but I have a friend who's chinese who says "dinner" instead of "thinner" so it's the "th" sound too. I'm sure if we went to china, there'd be somethings we just couldn't pronounce
2007-07-22 05:58:31 · answer #3 · answered by Kiearah 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am korean. because we don't have that R sound in our language. R and L are pretty similar isn't it??? I don't even understand why westerner have to have 2 similar sounds as different sounds. we can pronounce more things that you british(or westerner) can't pronounce.
2007-07-22 14:53:15 · answer #4 · answered by killy gonso 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Japanese don't have an L sound in their alphabet. When they are using an English word in Katakana they change the L to an R. So this is actually the opposite of what you are thinking...
2007-07-22 06:01:06 · answer #5 · answered by ginzuisho 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The theory is, since they have no L sound in their language, their tongues and mouths do not develop the muscles to make those sounds.
Mind you it's ONLY a theory.
2007-07-22 06:39:45 · answer #6 · answered by Mr.TwoCrows 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋