Voiced retroflex flap

"Retroflex flap" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless retroflex flap.

A voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɽ⟩, a letter r with a tail.

Voiced retroflex flap
ɽ
IPA number	125
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɽ
Unicode (hex)	U+027D
X-SAMPA	r`
Braille
Image

Features

Features of a voiced retroflex flap:

• Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
• 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 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 only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Bengali[1]		গাড়ি	[ɡaɽi]	'car'	Apical postalveolar.[1] See Bengali phonology
Dutch[2][3]	North Brabant[4]	riem	[ɽim]	'belt'	A rare word-initial variant of /r/.[5][6] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	Northern Netherlands[4][7]
Elfdalian		luv	[ɽʏːv]	'permission'
Enga		yála	[jɑɽɑ]	'shame'
Gokana[8]		bele	[beːɽeː]	'we'	Apical postalveolar. Allophone of /l/, medially between vowels within the morpheme, and finally in the morpheme before a following vowel in the same word. It can be a postalveolar trill or simply [l] instead.[8]
Hausa		bara	[bəɽä]	'servant'	Represented in Arabic script with ⟨ر⟩
Hindustani[9]	Hindi	बड़ा	[bəɽäː]ⓘ	'big'	Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms.[9] See Hindustani phonology
	Urdu	بڑا
Nepali[10]		भाड़ा	[bʱäɽä]	'rent'	Apical postalveolar; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.[11] See Nepali phonology
Norwegian	Central dialects[12]	Vål[']erenga	[ˈvôːɽɛ̝̀ŋɑ̌]ⓘ	'Vålerenga'	Allophone of /l/ and /r/. In Urban East Norwegian it often alternates with the alveolar [ɾ], save for a small number of words.[12][13] See Norwegian phonology
	Eastern dialects[12][13]
Odia[14]		ଗାଡ଼ି	[ɡäɽiː]	'car'	Apical postalveolar; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.[14]
Okinawan		karatii	[kaɽatii]	'karate'	Intervocalic allophone of /ɾ/.
Parkari Koli		ۿُونَواڙ‎	[ɦuːnaʋaːɽ]	'desolate, deserted'
Portuguese	Some European speakers[15]	falar	[fɐˈläɽ]	'to speak'	Allophone of /ɾ/. See Portuguese phonology
	Brazilian caipira speakers[16][17]	madeira	[mäˈd̪eɽə]	'wood'
	Some sertanejo speakers[18]	gargalhar	[ɡäɽɡäˈʎäɽ]	'to guffaw'
Punjabi[19]	Gurmukhi	ਘੋੜਾ	[k̠òːɽaː]ⓘ	'horse'
	Shahmukhi	گھوڑا
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis	thuirt	[hʉɽʈ]	'said'	Possible realisation of /rˠ/.
Shipibo[20]		roro	[ˈɽo̽ɽo̽]	'to break'	Apical postalveolar; possible realization of /r/.[20]
Swedish	Some dialects[13]	flagga	[ˈfɽagː˦˥˩ˌa˦˥˩]ⓘ	'[a] flag'	Allophone of retroflexed /rd/ ([ɖ]) and (single) /l/, the former especially after labials, velars or long vowels.[21]. See Swedish phonology
Tamil		நாடு / نَاڊُ‎	[naːɽɯ]ⓘ	'country'	Intervocalic and word-medial allophone of /ʈ/. See Tamil phonology
Telugu		గోడు	[goːɽu]ⓘ	'grief'	Allophone of /ɖ/.
Tukano[22]	Ye’pâ-Masa	petâ-de	[pɛ̀ɛ̥̀táɽɛ᷆]	'(relative to the) port'	Realisation of ⟨d⟩ in certain positions. Nasalised [ɽ͂] in nasal contexts.[22]
Wapishana[23]		[pɨɖaɽɨ]		'your father'
Warlpiri		jarda	[caɽa]	'sleep'	Transcribes /ɽ/ as ⟨rd⟩.
Yidiny[24]		[gambi:ɽ]		'tablelands'

Voiced retroflex nasal flap

Retroflex nasal flap
ɽ̃

Features

Features of a retroflex nasal tap or flap:

• Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
• 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 a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
• 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 only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Hindi	गणेश Gaṇeśa	[ɡəɽ̃eːʃ]	'Ganesha'	Allophone of /ɳ/ when not in clusters
Ndrumbea[25]	/t̠ɽáɽẽ/	[t̠áɽ̃ã́ɻ̃ẽ]	'to run'	Allophone of /ɽ/ before a nasal vowel
Kangri[26]	न्ह़ौणा	[nɔ̌ɽ̃ɑ]	'to bathe'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles