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Voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants
Consonantal sound

The voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants are types of consonantal sounds used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is ⟨ɹ⟩, a lowercase letter r rotated 180 degrees. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\.

The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the voiced postalveolar approximant, pronounced a little more back and transcribed more precisely in IPA as ⟨ɹ̠⟩, but ⟨ɹ⟩ is often used for convenience in its place. For further ease of typesetting, English phonemic transcriptions might use the symbol ⟨r⟩ even though this symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.

The bunched or molar r sounds remarkably similar to the postalveolar approximant and can be described as a voiced labial pre-velar approximant with tongue-tip retraction. It can be transcribed in IPA as ⟨ψ⟩ or ⟨ɹ̈⟩.

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Features

Features of the voiced alveolar approximant:

Occurrence

Alveolar

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
Albanianunknowngjelbër[ˈɟʑɛlbəɹ]'green'
ArmenianClassicalսուրճ[suɹtʃ]'coffee'
Assameseৰঙা (rônga)[ɹɔŋa]'red'
Assyrian Neo-AramaicAlqosh dialectܪܒ[ɹɑbɑ]'many'Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
Tyari dialect
Bengali2আবার[abaɹ]'again'Phonetic realisation of /r/, especially in some Eastern Dialects and sometimes in conjunct before consonants. Corresponds to [r ~ ɾ] in others. See Bengali phonology
Burmese34ပရိဘောဂ[pəɹḭbɔ́ɡa̰]'furniture'Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English.
Chukchiңирэк[ŋiɹek]'two'
Dahalo5[káð̠˕i]'work'Apical. It is a common intervocalic allophone of /d̠/, and may be a weak fricative [ð̠] or simply a plosive [d] instead.6
DanishStandard789ved[ve̝ð̠˕ˠ]'at'Velarized and laminal; allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda.101112 For a minority of speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead.13 See Danish phonology.
DutchCentral Netherlandicdoor[doːɹ]'through'Allophone of /r/ in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology.
Western Netherlandic
Leidenrat[ɹat]'rat'Corresponds to /r/ in other dialects.
Faroeseróður[ɹɔuwʊɹ]'rudder'See Faroese phonology.
GermanMoselle Franconian (Siegerland14 and Westerwald15 dialects)Rebe[ˈɹeːbə]'vine'Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ], a uvular trill [ʀ] or an alveolar trill [r]. See Standard German phonology.
Silesian
Upper Lusatian
Greek16μέρα méra[ˈmɛɹɐ]'day'Allophone of /ɾ/ in rapid or casual speech and between vowels. See Modern Greek phonology.
Icelandicbróðir[ˈprou̯ð̠˕ir]'brother'Usually apical. See Icelandic phonology.
LimburgishMontfortian dialect17maintenant[ˈmæ̃ːn˦ð̠˕ənɑ̃ː˨]'now'
Persianفارسی[fɒːɹˈsiː]'Persian'Allophone of /ɾ/ before /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /l/. See Persian phonology.
PortugueseMultiple Brazilian dialects, mostly inland Centro-Sul18amor[aˈmoɹˠ]'love'Allophone of /ɾ ~ ʁ/ in the syllable coda. Velarized, may also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or a rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology.
SpanishAndalusian19doscientos[do̞(ɹ)ˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s]'two hundred'Allophone of /s/ before [θ]. See Spanish phonology.
Belizeaninvierno[imˈbjeɹno]'winter'Possible realization of /r/ in the syllable coda due to English influence.
Caribbean Colombian
Puerto Rican
Costa Rican20carroˈkaɹo'car'Allophone of /r/, and of /ɾ/ before /l/. See Costa Rican Spanish.
SwedishCentral Standard21starkast[ˈs̪t̪äɹːkäs̪t̪]'strongest'Allophone of /r/. Some speakers have [ɾ] ([r] when geminated) in all positions. See Swedish phonology.
Tagalogparang[paɹaŋ]'like-'Allophone of the more usual and traditional flap or trill [ɾ ~ r] and is sometimes thus pronounced by some younger speakers due to exposure to mainstream English.
TurkishMarmara Regionartık[aɹtɯk]'excess, surplus'Occurs as an allophone of [ɾ] in syllable coda, in free variation with post-alveolar [ɹ̠]. See Turkish phonology.
VietnameseSaigon22ra[ɹa]'go out'In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology.
ZapotecTilquiapan23rdɨ[ɹd̪ɨ]'pass'Allophone of /ɾ/ before consonants.

Postalveolar

See also: Retroflex approximant and Voiced retroflex approximant

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
EnglishAustralianred[ɹ̠ʷed]'red'Often labialized. May also be a labialized retroflex approximant. For convenience it is often transcribed ⟨r⟩. See Australian English phonology, English phonology, Rhoticity in English and Pronunciation of English /r/.
Most American dialects24[ɹ̠ʷɛd]ⓘ
Received Pronunciation
Igbo25rí[ɹ̠í]'eat'
Malayراتوس / ratus[ɹ̠ä.tos]'hundred'More commonly trill [r] or flap [ɾ]. See Malay phonology
MalteseSome dialects26malajr[mɐˈlɐjɹ̠]'quickly'Corresponds to [ɾ ~ r] in other dialects.27
Shipibo28roro[ˈd̠ɹ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽]'to break into pieces'Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of /r/.29

As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan.30

See also

Notes

  • Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
  • Bakkes, Pierre (2007), Mofers Waordebook (in Dutch), Stichting Mofers Waordebook, ISBN 978-90-9022294-3
  • Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, OUP Oxford, ISBN 0-19-824268-9
  • Boyce, S.; Espy-Wilson, C. (1997), "Coarticulatory stability in American English /r/", Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 101 (6): 3741–3753, Bibcode:1997ASAJ..101.3741B, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.16.4174, doi:10.1121/1.418333, PMID 9193061
  • Browman, C.P.; Goldstein, L. (1995), "Gestural syllable position in American English", in Bell-Berti, F.; Raphael, L.J. (eds.), Producing Speech: Contemporary Issues: for Katherine Safford Harris, New York: AIP, pp. 9–33
  • Cornyn, William (1944), Outline of Burmese Grammar, Supplement to Language, vol. 20 no. 4, Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America
  • Delattre, P.; Freeman, D.C. (1968), "A dialect study of American R's by x-ray motion picture", Linguistics, 44: 29–68
  • Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 9780521637510
  • Fougeron, C (1999), "Prosodically conditioned articulatory variation: A Review", UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics, vol. 97, pp. 1–73
  • Grønnum, Nina (2003), "Why are the Danes so hard to understand?", in Jacobsen, Henrik Galberg; Bleses, Dorthe; Madsen, Thomas O.; Thomsen, Pia (eds.), Take Danish - for instance: linguistic studies in honour of Hans Basbøll, presented on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, pp. 119–130
  • Hallé, Pierre A.; Best, Catherine T.; Levitt, Andrea (1999), "Phonetic vs. phonological influences on French listeners' perception of American English approximants", Journal of Phonetics, 27 (3): 281–306, doi:10.1006/jpho.1999.0097
  • Ikekeonwu, Clara I. (1999), "Igbo", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 108–110, ISBN 9780521637510
  • Khan, Sameer ud Dowla (2010), "Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 221–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071

References

  1. Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge University Press. p. 302. ISBN 0-521-45655-X. 0-521-45655-X ↩

  2. Khan (2010), pp. 223–224. - Khan, Sameer ud Dowla (2010), "Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 221–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071 http://www.reed.edu/linguistics/khan/assets/Khan%202010%20Bengali%20Bangladeshi%20standard.pdf ↩

  3. Cornyn (1944:7) - Cornyn, William (1944), Outline of Burmese Grammar, Supplement to Language, vol. 20 no. 4, Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America ↩

  4. Watkins (2001) - Watkins, Justin (2001), "Illustrations of the IPA: Burmese" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 291–95, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002122, S2CID 232344700 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/334DD11C94575EF39A51109B008FB090/S0025100301002122a.pdf/burmese.pdf ↩

  5. Maddieson et al. (1993:34) - Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, vol. 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 25–65 http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8k45g432 ↩

  6. Maddieson et al. (1993:28, 34) - Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian (ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, vol. 84, Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group, pp. 25–65 http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8k45g432 ↩

  7. Basbøll (2005:59 and 63) - Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, OUP Oxford, ISBN 0-19-824268-9 ↩

  8. Grønnum (2003:121) - Grønnum, Nina (2003), "Why are the Danes so hard to understand?", in Jacobsen, Henrik Galberg; Bleses, Dorthe; Madsen, Thomas O.; Thomsen, Pia (eds.), Take Danish - for instance: linguistic studies in honour of Hans Basbøll, presented on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, pp. 119–130 ↩

  9. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144) - Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. ↩

  10. Basbøll (2005:59 and 63) - Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, OUP Oxford, ISBN 0-19-824268-9 ↩

  11. Grønnum (2003:121) - Grønnum, Nina (2003), "Why are the Danes so hard to understand?", in Jacobsen, Henrik Galberg; Bleses, Dorthe; Madsen, Thomas O.; Thomsen, Pia (eds.), Take Danish - for instance: linguistic studies in honour of Hans Basbøll, presented on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag, pp. 119–130 ↩

  12. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144) - Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. ↩

  13. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144) - Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. ↩

  14. Kohler (1995:165f), cited in Universität zu Köln: Phonologische Analyse - Kohler, Klaus (1995), Einführung in die Phonetik des Deutschen, Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag ↩

  15. Wäller Platt: Die Aussprache https://web.archive.org/web/20160305215223/http://www.waeller-platt.de/aussprache.html ↩

  16. Arvaniti (2007:15–18) - Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11 https://web.archive.org/web/20131211020607/http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/ell/staff/amalia-arvaniti/docs/Greek%20Phonetics%20-%20The%20State%20of%20the%20Art.pdf ↩

  17. Bakkes (2007:[page needed]) - Bakkes, Pierre (2007), Mofers Waordebook (in Dutch), Stichting Mofers Waordebook, ISBN 978-90-9022294-3 ↩

  18. Acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese's retroflex /r/: data from respondents in Pato Branco, Paraná Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. Irineu da Silva Ferraz. Pages 19–21 (in Portuguese) http://dspace.c3sl.ufpr.br/dspace/bitstream/handle/1884/3955/CARACTER%C3%8DSTICAS%20FON%C3%89TICO.pdf?sequence=1 ↩

  19. Recasens (2004:436) citing Fougeron (1999) and Browman & Goldstein (1995) - Recasens, Daniel (2004), "The effect of syllable position on consonant reduction (evidence from Catalan consonant clusters)", Journal of Phonetics, 32 (3): 435–453, doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2004.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.wocn.2004.02.001 ↩

  20. Lipski (1994:222) - Lipski, John M. (1994), Latin American Spanish, Longman, ISBN 978-0-582-08761-3 ↩

  21. Engstrand (1999:141) - Engstrand, Olle (1999), "Swedish", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 140–142, ISBN 9780521637510 ↩

  22. Thompson (1959:459) - Thompson, Laurence C. (1959), "Saigon Phonemics", Language, 35 (3), Linguistic Society of America: 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232 https://doi.org/10.2307%2F411232 ↩

  23. Merrill (2008:109) - Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344 http://www.balsas-nahuatl.org/mixtec/Christian_articles/Otomanguean/Merrill.pdf ↩

  24. Hallé, Best & Levitt (1999:283) citing Delattre & Freeman (1968), Zawadzki & Kuehn (1980), and Boyce & Espy-Wilson (1997) - Hallé, Pierre A.; Best, Catherine T.; Levitt, Andrea (1999), "Phonetic vs. phonological influences on French listeners' perception of American English approximants", Journal of Phonetics, 27 (3): 281–306, doi:10.1006/jpho.1999.0097 https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fjpho.1999.0097 ↩

  25. Ikekeonwu (1999:108) - Ikekeonwu, Clara I. (1999), "Igbo", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association, Cambridge University Press, pp. 108–110, ISBN 9780521637510 ↩

  26. Puech (2013:74) - Puech, Gilbert (2013), "Prime constituents of Maltese sounds", in Borg, Albert; Caruana, Sandro; Vella, Alexandra (eds.), Perspectives on Maltese Linguistics, Berlin: Akademie Verlag GmbH, pp. 61–88, ISBN 978-3-05-006275-4 ↩

  27. Puech (2013:74) - Puech, Gilbert (2013), "Prime constituents of Maltese sounds", in Borg, Albert; Caruana, Sandro; Vella, Alexandra (eds.), Perspectives on Maltese Linguistics, Berlin: Akademie Verlag GmbH, pp. 61–88, ISBN 978-3-05-006275-4 ↩

  28. Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282) - Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40852342 ↩

  29. Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282) - Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40852342 ↩

  30. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:240–241) - Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6. ↩