Voiced retroflex approximant
| Voiced retroflex approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɻ | |||
| IPA number | 152 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
|
help | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɻ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+027B | ||
| X-SAMPA | r\` | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Labialized voiced retroflex approximant | |
|---|---|
| ɻʷ | |
| Audio sample | |
|
help |
| Non-syllabic rhotacized mid central vowel | |
|---|---|
| ɚ̯ |
The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used mostly in Tamiḻ one of the Dravidian and some other languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɻ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is 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
sounds similar to the retroflex approximant but it has a very 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Family | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sinitic | Chinese | Mandarin | 日光 rìguāng | [ɻ̺͢ɻ̺̞̍˥˩ku̯ɑ͢ŋ˥] | 'sunlight' | Apical. rhotic vowel, a phonemically distinct syllable in Chinese), but it can be prolonged indefinitely and never truly developed into an /ɨ̟/. Both the consonant and the vowel may gain some friction especially when prolonged to force a more "distinct/clear" effect in teaching or when swearing, and thus it may be inaccurately transcribed as fricative [ʐ] both as initial and as rime (when precision is necessary, a true fricative in Wu Chinese may be transcribed as [ʐ̥ʱ], as that is how it is pronounced in the first syllable). See Standard Chinese phonology .
The character 日 (sun), when pronounced with an overall strengthened friction (on both z and ɿ), may likely be understood as a profanity,[ |
| 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/. 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/اٰژَمْ /āḻam |
[aːɻɐm] | 'depth' | ||
Mapudungun
|
Mapuche[4] | rayen | [ɻɜˈjën] | 'flower' | Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɭ] instead.[4] | |
| Romance | Portuguese | Many Centro-Sul registers | cartas | [ˈkaɻtə̥̆s] | 'letters' | Allophone of rhotic consonants (and sometimes /l/) in the ɹ] and/or rhotic vowel instead. As with [ɽ], it appeared as a mutation of [ɾ].[6][7][8] See Portuguese phonology .
|
| Caipira | temporal | [tẽɪ̯̃pʊˈɾaɻ] | 'rainstorm' | |||
| Conservative Piracicabano | grato | [ˈgɻatʊ̥] | 'thankful' (m.) | |||
| Dravidian | Tamil[9] | 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
- Alveolar approximant
- Retroflex consonant
- R-colored vowel
- Index of phonetics articles
Notes
- S2CID 51828449.
- ^ a b c Árnason (2011), p. 115.
- ^ Trudgill (1989), pp. 18–19.
- ^ a b Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
- .
- hdl:1884/3955.
- ^ (in Portuguese) Syllable coda /r/ in the "capital" of the paulista hinterland: sociolinguistic analisis. 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
- Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116,
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96,
- Trudgill, Peter (1989), "The Sociophonetics of /l/ in the Greek of Sphakiá", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 15 (2): 18–22, S2CID 143943154
