ARTICULATION OF THE ALVEOLAR TRILL IN NATIVE SPEAKERS OF BULGARIAN. PRELIMINARY EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA
ARTICULATION OF THE ALVEOLAR TRILL IN NATIVE SPEAKERS OF BULGARIAN. PRELIMINARY EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA

Summary/Abstract: Speech sound disorders (SSD) present speakers with difficulties in perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds and segments in a language. They can manifest as omissions, substitutions or distortions of different groups of sounds. When the articulation of the alveolar trill /r/ is affected, the term rhotacism is commonly used. SSDs are some of the most common communication disorders, affecting both children and adults. Speech sound disorders often have a negative effect on an individual’s academic, professional, and social success. Thus, it is important to further the scientific knowledge of their description, diagnosis, and treatment. In addition, Bulgaria has not had a large scale, detailed epidemiological study of rhotacism errors and subtypes in recent years. This article aims to present preliminary demographic data from an acoustic study of the articulation of the /r/ sound in Bulgarian children and adults. The study included 248 adult and child speakers of Bulgarian aged 5;0 and 63;0 years old (141 M, 108 F). They were divided into five groups from 5 to 6 years old (12 children, 4.8%), from 6 to 7 years old (45 children, 18.1%), from 7 to 10 years old (159 children, 64.1%), from 10 to 12 years old (21 children, 8.5%), and from 25 to 63 years old (11 adults, 4.4%). Of them, 103 are female (41.5%), and 145 male (58%). Data collection took place in Sofia city, Bulgaria, between November 2025 and March 2026. In total, four kindergartens, 25 schools, one university, and one private speech language pathology practice in 15 city districts were surveyed. Ten of the participants (4%) were bi or trilingual, 238 (96%) were not. 203 (81.9%) of the study’s participants demonstrated differences in the vocal tract anatomy/physiology, while 45 (18.1%) didn’t. In 242 participants (97.6%) a communication disorder was identified. Of those, 118 (48.8%) demonstrated monomorphic and 124 (51.2%) polymorphic type. The largest percent of incorrect articulation was registered with the late ontogenesis sounds /ɫ/ (68.5%) and /r/ (72.2%), followed by the middle ontogenesis sibilants /s, z, t͡s/ and /ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ/ (52.4%). The age group 5 6 demonstrates the most /r/ sound errors (100%) with a general tendency for this percentage to decline with age, followed by ages 7 10 (74.2%), 6 7 (73.3%), 10 12 (61.9%), and 25 63 (27.3%). The reviewed descriptive, diagnostic, and articulation characteristics will be part of a subsequent analyses of the acoustic characteristics of the impaired articulation of the alveolar trill /r/. This study has implications for practicing speech language pathologists in providing current data on speech sound disorders, which will inform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

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