Voiced retroflex approximant

The 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⟩, 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.

Voiced retroflex approximant
ɻ
IPA number	152
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɻ
Unicode (hex)	U+027B
X-SAMPA	r\`
Braille
Image

Labialized voiced retroflex approximant
ɻʷ
Audio sample
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Non-syllabic rhotacized mid central vowel
ɚ̯

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

A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced retroflex approximant [ɻ]

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 airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the 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.[1] As an initial in free variation between fricative and approximant, but never has friction as strong as a true fricative (Chinese "fully muddy"/全浊-class) to trigger a (free or conditional) devoicing or postvoicing into /ʐ̥ʱ/, nor weak enough to become an apical vowel. As a rime it is an apical vowel that is frequently coarticulated with a close near-back unrounded vowel /ɨ̟/ (thus phonetically [ɻ̺͢ɨ̟͡ɻ̺̞̍˥˩ku̯ɑ͢ŋ˥], but this phonetic representation should be avoided as the tie-bar for coarticulation may be misunderstood as a sliding into an erhua 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,[which?] thus pronouncing as an approximant is important; but the two do not form a minimal pair, because the profanity can also be pronounced with little friction (though in some other dialects they further evolved to form a minimal pair).
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/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 syllable coda. Mainly[5] 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].[6][7][8] See Portuguese phonology.
		Caipira	temporal	[tẽɪ̯̃pʊˈɾaɻ]	'rainstorm'
		Conservative Piracicabano	grato	[ˈgɻatʊ̥]	'thankful' (m.)
Dravidian	Tamil[9]		தமிழ்/Tamiḻ	[t̪əˈmɨɻ]ⓘ	'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