Voiceless retroflex flap

A voiceless retroflex flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound used in spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɽ̊⟩.

Voiceless retroflex flap
ɽ̊
IPA number	105 402B
Audio sample
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Encoding
Unicode (hex)	U+027D U+030A
X-SAMPA	r`_0
Image

Features

Features of a voiceless 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 voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• 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
Dhivehi	Some dialects[1]	[example needed]			May be a trill instead.[1] Corresponds to /ʂ/ in other dialects.[1]
Nepali		काठमाडौँ	[käɽ̊mäɳɖu]	'Kathmandu'	Coda and intervocalic allophone of /ʈʰ/.[2][3][4]
		अठार	[ʌɽ̊äɾʌ]	'eighteen'
Norwegian	Selbu dialect	mølk	[mœɽ̊k]	'milk'	Uncommon allophone of /ɽ/ before k and p.[5]
Swedish	Ångermanland dialect	mjölk	[mi̯ɔɽ̊k]	'milk'	Retroflex pronunciation of /l/ before k and p always voiceless in western Ångermanland dialects.[6]