Voiceless alveolar trill

The voiceless alveolar trill differs from the voiced alveolar trill /r/ in its phonation (whether or not the vocal chords are vibrating while pronouncing the sound). It is used in a few languages. In languages that also have the voiced alveolar trill, it can be a similar sound or an allophone (another way a certain sound can be pronounced).

Voiceless alveolar trill
r̥
IPA Number	122 402A
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
X-SAMPA	r_0
Image

In Proto-Indo-European, the sound *sr became a sound spelled ⟨ῥ⟩, with the letter for /r/ and the diacritic for /h/, in Ancient Greek. This sound was probably a voiceless alveolar trill. It became the regular word-initial (meaning "at the start of a word") allophone of /r/ in standard Attic Greek. This sound has disappeared in Modern Greek.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar trill:

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. This means that this sound is produced by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound 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.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is alveolar. This means that this sound is produced with the tip of the tongue (apical) or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (laminal).
• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is trill. This means that this sound is produced by directing air over the articulator so that it vibrates.
• It is an oral consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

Examples

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dharumbal[1]		barhi	[ˈbar̥i]	'stone'	Contrasts with /r/.
Estonian[2]		[example needed]			Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t, s, h/.[2] See Estonian phonology
Icelandic		hrafn	[ˈr̥apn̥]	'raven'	Contrasts with /r/. For some speakers it may actually be a voiceless flap. See Icelandic phonology.
Lezgian[3]		крчар/krčar	[ˈkʰr̥t͡ʃar]	'horns'	Allophone of /r/ between voiceless obstruents.
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect[4]	geer	[ɣeːr̥]	'odour'	Possible word-final (meaning "at the end of a word") allophone of /r/. It may be uvular [ʀ̥] instead.[5]
Moksha		нархне/närhn'e	[ˈnar̥nʲæ]	'these grasses'	Contrasts with /r/: нарня [ˈnarnʲæ] "short grass". It has the palatalized counterpart /r̥ʲ/: марьхне [ˈmar̥ʲnʲæ] "these apples", but марьня [ˈmarʲnʲæ] "little apple"
Nivkh	Amur dialect	р̌ы/řy	[r̥ɨ]	'door'	Contrasts with /r/. In the Sakhalin dialect, typically fricated ⟨r̝̊⟩.
Northern Qiang		[example needed]			Contrasts with /r/
Polish		krtań	[ˈkr̥täɲ̟]	'larynx'	Allophone of /r/ when surrounded by voiceless consonants, or word finally after voiceless consonants. See Polish phonology.
Ukrainian[6]		центр/centr	[t̪͡s̪ɛn̪t̪r̥]	'centre'	Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t/.[6] See Ukrainian phonology.
Welsh		Rhagfyr	[ˈr̥aɡvɨr]	'December'	Contrasts with /r/. See Welsh phonology.
Zapotec	Quiegolani[7]	rsil	[r̥sil]	'early'	Allophone of /r/.[7]

Voiceless alveolar fricative trill

Voiceless alveolar fricative trill
r̝̊
IPA Number	122 402A 429
Encoding
X-SAMPA	r_0_r

The voiceless alveolar fricative trill is not known to be a sound in any language, except maybe the East Sakhalin dialect of Nivkh. However, it is an allophone (another way of pronouncing a specific sound) in Czech.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar fricative trill:

• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound 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.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is alveolar. This means that this sound is produced with the tip of the tongue (apical) or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (laminal).
• Its manner of articulation (how the sound is pronounced) is fricative trill, which means it is a non-sibilant fricative and a trill pronounced at the same time.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Czech[8][9]		tři sta	[ˈt̪r̝̊ɪs̪t̪ä]	'three hundred'	Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants.[10][9] This may be a tapped fricative instead.[9] See Czech phonology
Norwegian	Areas around Narvik[11]	norsk	[nɔr̝̊k]	'Norwegian'	Allophone of the sequence /ɾs/ before voiceless consonants.[11]
	Some subdialects of Trøndersk[11]
Nivkh	(East) Sakhalin dialect	р̌ы	[r̝̊ɨ]	'door'	Contrasts with /r/. In the Amur dialect, typically realized (pronounced) as ⟨r̥⟩.
Polish	Some dialects	przyjść	[ˈpr̝̊ɘjɕt͡ɕ]	'to come'	Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants for speakers that do not merge it with /ʐ/. Present in areas from Starogard Gdański to Malbork and those south, west and northwest of them, the area from Lubawa to Olsztyn to Olecko to Działdowo, south and east from Wieleń, around Wołomin, southeast from Ostrów Mazowiecka and west from Siedlce, from Brzeg to Opole and those north of them, and roughly from Racibórz to Nowy Targ. Most speakers, including speakers of standard Polish, pronounce it the same as /ʂ/. Speakers which make a difference between these sounds (usually older speakers) sometimes pronounce it the same way as well.
Silesian	Gmina Istebna	[example needed]			Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants. It is pronounced the same as /ʂ/ in most Polish dialects.
	Jablunkov	[example needed]

Related pages

• Index of phonetics articles