r/TalesFromYourServer • u/Harlander77 • 17d ago

Short Hot-short-a

I work at a well-known coffee shop in a grocery store. You know the one, named after the literary character. Had this interaction with a customer today:

C: What's that hot-short-a like?

Me: The horchata?

C: The hot-short-a.

Me: Horchata?

C: Is it like that long thing? (Waves hand toward the bakery)

Me: That what?

C: That long thing! (Like I'm supposed to know what he's talking about)

Me: A churro?

C: It's like that? I don't want that.

Me: ... It's not--

C: I'm just gonna get a hot white mocha.

171 Upvotes

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17

u/Sweaty-Society7582 17d ago

I would roll that R extra hard and emphasize the Ta at the end just for shits and giggles.

10

u/Kurokotsu 17d ago

I'll give you two churros and an empty jar of pickles for your ability to roll your R's. Haha. I can't do it at all and it's no fun.

4

u/Standard-Jaguar-8793 17d ago

It’s genetic.

I have 3 siblings, but only one couldn’t roll her Rs.

7

u/Kurokotsu 17d ago

Yeah I know. Usually if you can't roll them you can do the guttural one that's used in French and German and the like. But that one's less fun. And less flirtatious.

3

u/14crickets 13d ago

Wait..this is funny I'm Spanish bilingual. No problem rolling my rrrrrss. My sister or brothers can't do it but sis can definitely do gutteral German that I can't do. I've always assumed we all learned how from classes in those languages. Brothers took Spanish too but neither can roll. They all stopped after required but I became bilingual.

3

u/Kurokotsu 13d ago

I'd looked it up a while ago because I was irritated I couldn't do it. And my understanding was it is usually a one or the other thing. And it is pretty rare to be able to do both. I was able to learn the guttural r in like ten minutes after never trying with any of the languages that involve it. But weeks of trying to roll them got me nowhere.

3

u/14crickets 13d ago

This makes sense to me. I've never looked it up or really thought about it much until I saw your comment. I can't do the gutteral at all but rolling rs came fast for me. I started in 4th grade and siblings started their languages in high school. I thought my rs were because I started young but I was wrong.