Khayyam wrote:
Are there any German dialects where the pure rolling 'r', with no furball-in-throat sound, is normal?
Oh, absolutely. Hessians (at least in Middle Hessen) don't gurgle if they speak dialect. Dialects vary from town to town, but I have the advantage that the people where I live pronounce the "r" like I do. Phonetically it would be "Är". That pesky R is the main thing that gives me away as an American. But it works just fine because it matches the dialect.
For anyone that knows German, this short comedic take on how the R is spoken in Hessen is halarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpsfB9B7yzg "Die gelbe krumme Frucht, wo die Affen so gern essen, wo man die Schale abmachen muss, heißt bei denen: Bar-narn!"
