3.5. However it is easy to demonstrate the distinction between the voiced alveolar lateral / 1 / and the voiced retroflex lateral | | | as in SH because retroflex consonants are commonly used in SH. But a very serious teaching problem arises when the teacher emphasizes the contrast between | | | and / Ll. | L / the palatal retroflex lateral is always wrongly identified with flap / r / in Hindi speakers' pronunciation. ST SH vaaLE ᏙᏋlá re’ - “plantain tree mal E mare” “rain’ taLE ta re' “tender leaf 3.6. The voiced alveolar trill / R / in ST is unmatched by any sound in SH. This is the area of difficulty where the Hindi speakers face a serious phonetic problem. It is often replaced by the voiced alveolar flap / r s in their pronunciation though there is striking difference between these two phonemes on the phonetic level. CX. ST SH aRU {11"t] “cut” poRU puru “tolerate’ aRE are" ‘room.’ 3.7. The trill / R / is articulated by the rapid vibrations by the tip of the tongue against the middle of the alveolar ridge. A more detailed examination shows that the difference between | r s and / R / lies in the number of taps which are made by the tip of the tongue aginst the alveolar ridge. 4. It is important to eliminate these phonetic errors though "translation' is unavoidable in language learning. The phonetic cirors could be easily corrected if the areas of difficulty are 289
