Voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants

Voiced postalveolar approximant
Voiced postalveolar approximant
ɹ̠
Audio sample
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Voiced alveolar approximant
Voiced alveolar approximant
ɹ
ð̠˕
IPA Number	151
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɹ
Unicode (hex)	U+0279
X-SAMPA	r\ or D_r_o
Braille
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The voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound 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⟩[1] or ⟨ɹ̈⟩.

Features

A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ].

A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠].

Features of the voiced alveolar 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
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.
The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian		gjelbër	[ˈɟʑɛlbəɹ]	'green'
Armenian	Classical	սուրճ	[suɹtʃ]	'coffee'
Assamese		ৰঙা (rônga)	[ɹɔŋa]	'red'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Alqosh dialect	ܪܒ	[ɹɑbɑ]	'many'	Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Tyari dialect	ܪܒ	[ɹɑbɑ]	'many'	Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
Bengali[2]	Especially Eastern dialects	আবার	[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
Burmese[3][4]		ပရိဘောဂ	[pəɹḭbɔ́ɡa̰]	'furniture'	Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English.
Chukchi		ңирэк	[ŋiɹek]	'two'
Dahalo[5]		[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]
Danish	Standard[7][8][9]	ved	[ve̝ð̠˕ˠ]	'at'	Velarized and laminal; allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda.[7][8][9] For a minority of speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead.[9] See Danish phonology.
Dutch	Central Netherlandic	door	[doːɹ]	'through'	Allophone of /r/ in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology.
	Western Netherlandic	door	[doːɹ]	'through'
	Leiden	rat	[ɹat]	'rat'	Corresponds to /r/ in other dialects.
Faroese		róður	[ɹɔuwʊɹ]	'rudder'	See Faroese phonology.
German	Moselle Franconian (Siegerland[10] and Westerwald[11] 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
Greek[12]		μέρα méra	[ˈmɛɹɐ]	'day'	Allophone of /ɾ/ in rapid or casual speech and between vowels. See Modern Greek phonology.
Icelandic		bróðir	[ˈprou̯ð̠˕ir]	'brother'	Usually apical. See Icelandic phonology.
Limburgish	Montfortian dialect[13]	maintenant	[ˈmæ̃ːn˦ð̠˕ənɑ̃ː˨]	'now'
Persian		فارسی	[fɒːɹˈsiː]	'Persian'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before /d/, /l/, /s/, /ʃ/, /t/, /z/, and /ʒ/. See Persian phonology.
Portuguese	Multiple Brazilian dialects, mostly inland Centro-Sul[14]	amor	[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.
Spanish	Andalusian[15]	doscientos	[do̞ɹˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s]	'two hundred'	Allophone of /s/ before [θ]. See Spanish phonology.
	Belizean	invierno	[imˈbjeɹno]	'winter'	Possible realization of /r/ in the syllable coda due to English influence.
	Caribbean Colombian
	Puerto Rican
Swedish	Central Standard[16]	starkast	[ˈs̪t̪äɹːkäs̪t̪]	'strongest'	Allophone of /r/. Some speakers have [ɾ] ([r] when geminated) in all positions. See Swedish phonology.
Tagalog		parang	[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.
Turkish	Marmara Region	artık	[aɹtɯk]	'excess, surplus'	Occurs as an allophone of [ɾ] in syllable coda, in free variation with post-alveolar [ɹ̠]. See Turkish phonology.
Vietnamese	Saigon[17]	ra	[ɹa]	'go out'	In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology.
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[18]	rdɨ	[ɹd̪ɨ]	'pass'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before consonants.

Postalveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Australian	red	[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 dialects[19]		[ɹ̠ʷɛd]^ⓘ
	Received Pronunciation		[ɹ̠ʷɛd]^ⓘ
Igbo[20]		rí	[ɹ̠í]	'eat'
Malay		راتوس / ratus	[ɹ̠ä.tos]	'hundred'	More commonly trill [r] or flap [ɾ]. See Malay phonology
Maltese	Some dialects[21]	malajr	[mɐˈlɐjɹ̠]	'quickly'	Corresponds to [ɾ ~ r] in other dialects.[21]
Shipibo[22]		roro	[ˈd̠ɹ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽]	'to break into pieces'	Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of /r/.[22]

As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan.[23]

Notes

Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. p. 302. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
Khan (2010), pp. 223–224.
Cornyn (1944:7)
Watkins (2001)
Maddieson et al. (1993:34)
Maddieson et al. (1993:28, 34)
Basbøll (2005:59 and 63)
Grønnum (2003:121)
Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144)
Kohler (1995:165f), cited in Universität zu Köln: Phonologische Analyse
Wäller Platt: Die Aussprache
Arvaniti (2007:15–18)
Bakkes (2007:)
Acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese's retroflex /r/: data from respondents in Pato Branco, Paraná. Irineu da Silva Ferraz. Pages 19–21 (in Portuguese)
Recasens (2004:436) citing Fougeron (1999) and Browman & Goldstein (1995)
Engstrand (1999:141)
Thompson (1959:459)
Merrill (2008:109)
Hallé, Best & Levitt (1999:283) citing Delattre & Freeman (1968), Zawadzki & Kuehn (1980), and Boyce & Espy-Wilson (1997)
Ikekeonwu (1999:108)
Puech (2013:74)
Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:240–241)

References

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 Limburgish), ISBN 978-90-9022294-3
Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, 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, 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

Kohler, Klaus (1995), Einführung in die Phonetik des Deutschen, Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
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
Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
Moosmüller, Sylvia; Schmid, Carolin; Brandstätter, Julia (2015), "Standard Austrian German", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 45 (3): 339–348, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000055
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
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
Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
Thompson, Laurence C. (1959), "Saigon Phonemics", Language, Linguistic Society of America, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
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
Zawadzki, P.A.; Kuehn, D.P. (1980), "A cineradiographic study of static and dynamic aspects of American English /r/", Phonetica, 37 (4): 253–266, doi:10.1159/000259995, PMID 7443796, S2CID 46760239

External links

List of languages with [ɹ] on PHOIBLE

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[1] Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. p. 302. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.

[FOOTNOTEKhan2010223–224-2] Khan (2010), pp. 223–224.

[3] Cornyn (1944:7)

[4] Watkins (2001)

[5] Maddieson et al. (1993:34)

[6] Maddieson et al. (1993:28, 34)

[Basbøll-7] Basbøll (2005:59 and 63)

[Grønnum-8] Grønnum (2003:121)

[SOWL1-9] Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144)

[10] Kohler (1995:165f), cited in Universität zu Köln: Phonologische Analyse

[11] Wäller Platt: Die Aussprache

[12] Arvaniti (2007:15–18)

[13] Bakkes (2007:)

[14] Acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese's retroflex /r/: data from respondents in Pato Branco, Paraná. Irineu da Silva Ferraz. Pages 19–21 (in Portuguese)

[15] Recasens (2004:436) citing Fougeron (1999) and Browman & Goldstein (1995)

[16] Engstrand (1999:141)

[17] Thompson (1959:459)

[18] Merrill (2008:109)

[19] Hallé, Best & Levitt (1999:283) citing Delattre & Freeman (1968), Zawadzki & Kuehn (1980), and Boyce & Espy-Wilson (1997)

[20] Ikekeonwu (1999:108)

[puech-21] Puech (2013:74)

[val283-22] Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)

[23] Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:240–241)

The letter R
General	Rhotic consonants (R-like sounds) Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers Pronunciation of English /r/ Rhoticity in English R-colored vowel Rhotacism Guttural R Linking and intrusive R
Pronunciations	Voiceless alveolar trill [r̥] Voiced alveolar trill [r] Voiced alveolar or postalveolar approximant [ɹ] Voiceless alveolar tap [ɾ̥] Voiced alveolar tap [ɾ] Voiced alveolar lateral flap [ɺ] Voiced retroflex approximant [ɻ] Voiced retroflex flap [ɽ] Voiced retroflex trill [ɽr] Voiced velar approximant [ɰ] Voiced velar bunched approximant [ɹ̈] Voiceless velar fricative [x] Voiced velar fricative [ɣ] Voiceless uvular trill [ʀ̥] Voiced uvular trill [ʀ] Voiceless uvular fricative [χ] Voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] Voiced pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] Voiceless glottal fricative [h] Voiced glottal fricative [ɦ]
Variations	Ꝛꝛ (R rotunda) Ꞃꞃ (Insular) Ɽɽ (R with tail) Ɍɍ (R with stroke) Ʀʀ Ȑȑ Ŕŕ Ŗŗ Řř Ȓȓ R̃r̃ Ṙṙ Ṛṛ R̄r̄ Ṝṝ Ṟṟ Rd Rh Rl Rm Rn Rp Rr Rs Rt Rw Rz Rnd ᚱ (Raidô) ℝ (Real number) ® (Registered trademark symbol) Ⓡ (Enclosed R) ℞ (Medical prescription)