| Voiced retroflex approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɻ | |||
| IPA number | 152 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɻ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+027B | ||
| X-SAMPA | r\` | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
A voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɻ⟩, a turned lowercase letter r with a rightward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter.
The velar bunched approximant found in some varieties of Dutch and American English is nearly indistinguishable from a retroflex approximant in sound, but has a different articulation.
Features
Features of the voiced retroflex approximant:
- Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
- Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Family | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sinitic | Chinese | Mandarin | 肉 ròu | [ɻ̺oʊ̯˥˩] | 'meat' | Apical.[1] Can be transcribed as fricative [ʐ]. See Standard Chinese phonology |
| Nungish | Derung | Tvrung | [tə˧˩ɻuŋ˥˧] | 'Derung' | ||
| Germanic | English | Some American dialects | red | [ɻ(ʷ)ɛd] | 'red' | Labialized (pronounced with lips rounded). See Pronunciation of English /r/ |
| Some Hiberno-English dialects | ||||||
| Some West Country English | ||||||
| Arnhem | Enindhilyagwa | angwura | [aŋwuɻa] | 'fire' | ||
| Germanic | Faroese[2] | hoyrdi | [hɔiɻʈɛ] | 'heard' | Allophone of /ɹ/.[2] Sometimes voiceless [ɻ̊].[2] See Faroese phonology | |
| Hellenic | Greek | Cretan (Sfakia and Mylopotamos variations) region[3] | γάλα gála | [ˈɣaɻa] | 'milk' | Intervocalic allophone of /l/ before /a, o, u/. Recessive. See Modern Greek phonology |
| Eskimo-Aleut | Inuktitut | Nattilingmiutut | kiuřuq | /kiuɻuq/ | 'she replies' | |
| Dravidian | Malayalam | ആഴം/āḻam | [aːɻɐm] | 'depth' | Represented by the letter ⟨ഴ⟩. Subapical retroflex. See Malayalam phonology | |
| Mapudungun | Mapuche[4] | rayen | [ɻɜˈjën] | 'flower' | Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɭ] instead.[4] | |
| Austronesian | Lolak[5] | Ḷoḷak | [ˈɻo.ɻak̚] | 'Lolak' | Allophone of /l/; usually found adjacent to vowels such as [a], [ɔ] or [u].[5] | |
| Romance | Portuguese | Many Centro-Sul registers | cartas | [ˈkaɻtə̥̆s] | 'letters' | Allophone of rhotic consonants (and sometimes /l/) in the syllable coda. Mainly[6] found in rural São Paulo, Paraná, south of Minas Gerais and surrounding areas, with the more common and prestigious realization in metropolitan areas being [ɹ] and/or rhotic vowel instead. As with [ɽ], it appeared as a mutation of [ɾ].[7][8][9] See Portuguese phonology. |
| Caipira | temporal | [tẽɪ̯̃pʊˈɾaɻ] | 'rainstorm' | |||
| Conservative Piracicabano | grato | [ˈgɻatʊ̥] | 'thankful' (m.) | |||
| Dravidian | Tamil[10] | தமிழ்/Tamiḻ | 'Tamil' | See Tamil phonology. May be merged with [ɭ] for some modern speakers. | ||
| Pama-Nyungan | Western Desert | Pitjantjatjara dialect | Uluṟu | [ʊlʊɻʊ] | 'Uluru' | |
| Isolate | Yaghan | wárho | [ˈwaɻo] | 'cave' | ||
See also
Notes
- Lee, Wai-Sum (1999). An articulatory and acoustical analysis of the syllable-initial sibilants and approximant in Beijing Mandarin (PDF). Proceedings of the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. S2CID 51828449.
- Árnason (2011), p. 115.
- Trudgill (1989), pp. 18–19.
- Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
- Lobel & Paputungan (2017), p. 333.
- Brandão, Silvia Figueiredo (15 December 2007). "Nas trilhas do -R retroflexo". Signum: Estudos da Linguagem. 10 (2): 265. doi:10.5433/2237-4876.2007v10n2p265.
- Ferraz, Irineu da Silva (2005). Características fonético-acústicas do /r/ retroflexo do portugues brasileiro : dados de informantes de Pato Branco (PR) (Thesis). hdl:1884/3955.
- (in Portuguese) Syllable coda /r/ in the "capital" of the paulista hinterland: sociolinguistic analysis. Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine Cândida Mara Britto LEITE. Page 111 (page 2 in the attached PDF)
- (in Portuguese) Callou, Dinah. Leite, Yonne. "Iniciação à Fonética e à Fonologia". Jorge Zahar Editora 2001, p. 24
- Keane (2004), p. 111.
References
- Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
- Lobel, Jason William; Paputungan, Ade Tatak (2017), Notes from the field: Lolak: Another moribund language of Indonesia, with supporting audio, University of Hawaii Press, hdl:10125/24758
- Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
- Trudgill, Peter (1989), "The Sociophonetics of /l/ in the Greek of Sphakiá", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 15 (2): 18–22, doi:10.1017/S0025100300002942, S2CID 143943154