r is the IPA symbol for the Voiced Alveolar Trill, a voiced alveolar trill consonant. It appears in 195 of 500 languages (39% cross-linguistic frequency).
r

Voiced Alveolar Trill

Consonant · voiced

Audio via Wikimedia Commons

Languages using this sound 195 / 500
Cross-linguistic frequency 39%

Moderately common across languages.

Type consonant

Articulation

Every speech sound is defined by three properties: its class (consonant, vowel, or tone), its place of articulation (where in the vocal tract it is formed — lips, teeth, palate, etc.), its manner (how airflow is controlled — stopped, funneled into a fricative, channeled through the nose), and its voicing (whether the vocal cords vibrate during production).

Class
Consonant
Voicing
Voiced
Place
Alveolar
Manner
Trill

Languages using this sound

This sound appears in 195 of the 500 languages in our database. Languages that use a sound only in loanwords or in rare, specialized contexts are marked as marginal (*) — the sound exists but is not a core part of the phonological system. Click any language to view its full sound inventory.

Related sounds