[File:Uvular rhotics in Europe.png|thumb|300px|Distribution of guttural R (e.g. ) in Continental Europe in the mid-20th century. ]] In common parlance, "
guttural R" is the phenomenon whereby a
rhotic consonant (an "R-like" sound) is produced in the back of the
vocal tract (usually
with the uvula) rather than in the front portion thereof and thus as a
guttural consonant. Due to strong association with
French, guttural R is sometimes thought of as "French R". Such terms are normally avoided in
linguistic description in part due to their imprecision. Speakers of languages with guttural R typically regard guttural and
coronal rhotics to be alternative pronunciations of the same
phoneme, despite
articulatory differences. Similar consonants are found in other parts of the world, but they often have little to no cultural association or interchangeability with coronal rhotics (such as , , and ) and are (perhaps) not rhotics at all.