Linguists get all the cool words.

[justben]

I mean, really. Iotation. Lenition. Rhotacise. Retroflex lateral flap. That shit is effing awesome.

(LJ Spellchecker Genius of the Day: Iotation -> Adoration)

Comments

[justben]

The inability to produce a phone (is that the term I'm looking for?) even with practice and coaching honestly baffles me. I don't mean any insult when I say that, either: I really just don't comprehend it at all.

I wonder, can he stick out his tongue and bend the tip upward along his lip? Could he possibly progress from there to bending it up without the reference of the lip, and then on to doing it without even sticking out his tongue?

Alternately, could he perhaps try for a sort of apical dental or alveolar articulation and then push the body of his tongue forward until the articulation is sub-apical? I know if I push from dental apical into dental sub-apical I can actually bite the middle of my tongue. If he can manage a sub-apical dental or alveolar articulation that then he might actually be able to learn what that retroflection feels like and reproduce it farther back.

OK, so the second one was really just an excuse to say "sub-apical alveolar articulation" (awesome words!), but it could still work!