Approximant /r/ in Dutch: Routes and feelings

At present, three variants of /r/ co-occur in northern Standard Dutch i.e. the variant of Standard Dutch as spoken in the Netherlands. In addition to the older alveolar and uvular consonantal types of /r/, there is now an approximant type of /r/, which is restricted to syllable coda. This approximant /r/ has been around at least since the beginning of the 20th century, but it seems that it recently started to expand. In this article, two sociophonetic studies are described of this ongoing change. In the first study, three hypotheses based on statements in the literature are tested: approximant /r/ is spreading from the west to other parts of the Netherlands, it is used more often by women than by men, and it is used more often by children than by adults. All three hypotheses were confirmed. In the second study, we studied how approximant /r/ is received: Do people find it attractive? Is it associated with particular personality characteristics? Where do people think it is spoken? The matched-guise approach was used, in which one speaker read the same text with different /r/-variants. It appeared that listeners from the west find approximant /r/ more attractive than listeners from other regions. Its use, at least when it is not perceptually salient, does not affect listeners' impressions of how likeable the speaker is; it is associated, however, with a high social position and with people living in the western part of the country.