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My acoustic research into 'labiodental' /r/ in adult speakers of British English (various varieties) suggest very strongly that for 5 out of 6 subjects there is some degree of velarisation, though the constriction is probably not as far back as for /w/. The formant structure for 'labiodental' /r/ for these subjects is similar to that seen for the Russian barred /i/, with F1 around 350 Hz, F2 at around 1400 Hz, and F3 around 2000 Hz. Given the Russian parallel, this kind of /r/could be described as a high/close central glide. Direct confirmation of the presumed velarised articulation is still lacking. The one remaining subject has formant patterns for /r/ which do not differ significantly from those for /v/ (the average value of F2 is almost identical in fact), so a truly labiodental /r/, but only in 1 case out of 6. Sorry I can't furnish a more wide-ranging reference. Mark Mark J. Jones Department of Linguistics University of Cambridge http://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark/ [log in to unmask]