See Also: rhotacism(medicine)
rhotacism(dictionary)

rhotacism (iou)



rhotacism noun. M19.
[mod. Latin rhotacismus ult. from Greek rhotakizein make excessive or wrong use of the letter r, formed as RHO + -izein -IZE with hiatus-filling k: see -ISM.]
1. Linguistics. Excessive use or distinctive pronunciation of the phoneme [r] (repr. by the letter r); spec. use of the burr or uvular r. M19.
2. Philology. Conversion of another sound, esp. the phoneme [s] (repr. by the letter s), into the phoneme [r] (repr. by the letter r). M19.