Listen closely in Laos and you can hear a linguistic renaissance. It sounds a lot like the letter R. Forty-five years ago, Laos' communist government officially dropped the R sound from the Lao ...

Do you growl, roll or trill? The letter ‘r’ – and how we pronounce it – reveals a surprising amount about identity, fashion and history, writes James Harbeck. The ‘r’ sound is the Doctor Who of speech ...