Voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants

(Redirected from Voiced alveolar approximant)

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\.

Voiced alveolar approximant
ɹ
ð̠˕
IPA Number151
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɹ
Unicode (hex)U+0279
X-SAMPAr\
Braille⠼ (braille pattern dots-3456)
Voiced postalveolar approximant
ɹ̠
Audio sample

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 edit

 
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:

Occurrence edit

Alveolar edit

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Albanian gjelbër [ˈɟʑɛlbəɹ] 'green'
Armenian Classical սուրճ [suɹtʃ] 'coffee'
Assamese ঙা (rônga) [ɹɔŋa] 'red'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Alqosh dialect ܪܒ [ɹɑbɑ] 'many' Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
Tyari dialect
Bengali[2] Especially Eastern dialects আবা [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] ရိဘောဂ [pəɹḭbɔ́ɡa̰] 'furniture' Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English.
Chukchi[citation needed] 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
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 ra [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 /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /l/. 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] r [ɹd̪ɨ] 'pass' Allophone of /ɾ/ before consonants.

Postalveolar edit

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
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]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. Cambridge University Press. p. 302. ISBN 0-521-45655-X.
  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)
  7. ^ a b Basbøll (2005:59 and 63)
  8. ^ a b Grønnum (2003:121)
  9. ^ a b c 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:[page needed])
  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)
  21. ^ a b Puech (2013:74)
  22. ^ a b Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
  23. ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:240–241)

References edit

  • 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

External links edit