I have a high level in German and French, but I use a uvular /ʁ/ in French and an alveolar /r/ in German (and in Dutch, my native language). In German, the alveolar /r/ is mainly used in Bavaria and parts of Switzerland and Austria. Most parts of Germany use a voiced uvular /ʀ/ or a voiceless uvular /ʀ̥/.
So there appears to be a difference between the French /ʁ/ and the German /ʀ/ or /ʀ̥/, and the difference is subtle enough for people to ask what that difference actually is. See for example:
- How is the "r" sound in German different from the French and Spanish ones? on Quora;
- Are the German R and the French R the same? on Yahoo Answers;
- German R vs. French R on /how-to-learn-any-language.com
- Does the French R-sound come from Germanic influence? on Linguistics SE.
Having learnt French before German, efforts to produce a German /ʀ/ or /ʀ̥/ can easily result in importing the French /ʁ/ into German. How can this be avoided? How can one learn to pronounce the French /ʁ/ in French and the German /ʀ/ or /ʀ̥/ in German?
