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The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental, alveolar, or postalveolar tap or flap is ⟨ɾ⟩.
The terms tap and flap are often used interchangeably. Peter Ladefoged proposed the distinction that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, and a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing."[1] That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap ⟨ɾ⟩ and flap ⟨ɽ⟩, the 'retroflex' symbol being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap [ɾ]) and "party" (retroflex [ɽ]).
For linguists who do not make the distinction, alveolars and dentals are typically called taps and other articulations flaps. No language contrasts a tap and a flap at the same place of articulation.
The sound is often analyzed and thus interpreted by non-native English-speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. In languages for which the segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop ([t], [d], or both) or a rhotic consonant (like the alveolar trill or the alveolar approximant).
If the alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with ⟨r⟩ although that symbol technically represents the trill.
The voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative.
| Voiced alveolar tap or flap | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɾ | |||
| IPA Number | 124 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɾ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+027E | ||
| X-SAMPA | 4 | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Features
Features of the voiced alveolar tap or flap:
- Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
- Its place of articulation is dental or alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth or at the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
- 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.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Egyptian[2] | رجل | [ɾeɡl] | 'leg' | See Egyptian Arabic phonology |
| Lebanese | إجر | [ʔəʒəɾ] | 'wages' | ||
| Moroccan | رما / rma | [ɾma] | 'he threw' | ||
| South Iraqi | أريد | [aɾid] | 'I want' | ||
| Aragonese | aragonés | [aɾaɣoˈnes] | 'Aragonese' | Contrasts with /r/. | |
| Armenian | Eastern[3] | րոպե | 'minute' | Contrasts with /r/ in all positions. | |
| Assyrian | ܪܝܫܐ rìsha | [ɾiʃa] | 'head' | Contrasts with ‘dark’ R. | |
| Asturian | hora | [ˈoɾa] | 'hour' | Contrasts with /r/. | |
| Basque | begiratu | [beˈɣiɾaˌtu] | 'look' | Contrasts with /r/. See Basque phonology | |
| Bengali | আবার | [abaɾ] | 'again' | Main realisation of /r/. Corresponds to [r ~ ɹ] in others and may occur word-medially and finally against [r]. See Bengali phonology | |
| Catalan[4] | truc | [ˈtɾuk] | 'trick' | Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology | |
| Danish[5][6] | nordisk | [ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk] | 'Nordic' | Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ between phonetic vowels.[5][6] See Danish phonology | |
| Dutch | reden | [ˈɾeːdə(n)] | 'reason' | Especially in the region of West Frisia. Realization of /r/ varies widely in Dutch. See Dutch phonology | |
| English | Cockney[7] | better | [ˈbe̞ɾɐ] | 'better' | Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ tʰ ~ tˢ]. See Flapping |
| Australian[8] | [ˈbeɾɐ] | Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/. See Australian English phonology, New Zealand English phonology and Flapping | |||
| New Zealand[9] | |||||
| Dublin[10] | Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/, present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be [ɹ] instead, unlike New and Mainstream. See English phonology and Flapping | ||||
| North America[11] | |||||
| Ulster | |||||
| West Country | |||||
| Irish | three | [θɾiː] | 'three' | Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents. | |
| Scottish[12] | Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r]. | ||||
| Older Received Pronunciation[13] | Allophone of /ɹ/ | ||||
| Scouse[12] | |||||
| South African[12] | Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead | ||||
| Esperanto | Esperanto | [espeˈɾanto] | 'one who hopes' | Usually a flap [ɾ], but can be a trilled r. See Esperanto phonology | |
| Greek[14] | μηρός / mirós | [miˈɾ̠o̞s] | 'thigh' | Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Hindustani | मेरा/میرا | [meːɾaː] | 'My' | Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. See Hindi phonology | |
| Irish | fear | [fʲaɾˠ] | 'man' | See Irish phonology | |
| Kinyarwanda | u Rwanda | [u ɾgwɑː.ndɑ] | 'Rwanda' | ||
| Japanese[dubious – discuss] | 心 /こころ kokoro | 'heart' | [15] Varies with [ɺ].[16] See Japanese phonology | ||
| Kazakh | бер/ber | 'give' | See Kazakh phonology | ||
| Korean | 여름 / yeoreum | [jʌɾɯm] | 'summer' | Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/ | |
| Malay | راتوس / ratus | [ɾä.tos] | 'hundred' | Common realisation of /r/. May be trill [r] or postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠]. See Malay phonology | |
| Māori | whare | [ɸaɾɛ] | 'house' | Sometimes trilled. | |
| Marathi | वारा | [ʋaːɾaː] | 'wind' | ||
| Nepali[17] | तारा | [t̪äɾä] | 'star' | Intervocalic allophone of /r/. See Nepali phonology | |
| Norwegian[18] | bare | 'only' | May be realised as a trill [r], approximant [ɹ] or uvular [ʀ~ʁ] depending on dialect. See Norwegian phonology | ||
| Odia | ରାତି/rāti | [ɾäti] | 'night' | ||
| Polish | który | [ˈkt̪u.ɾɘ̟] | 'which' | Can also sometimes be an approximant, a fricative, and rarely - a trill. See Polish phonology | |
| Portuguese[19] | prato | [ˈpɾatu] | 'dish' | Dental to retroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with /ʁ/, with its guttural allophones. See Portuguese phonology | |
| Punjabi | Gurmukhi | ਲਾਰਾ | [ˈläːɾäː] | 'false promise' | See Punjabi phonology. |
| Shahmukhi | لارا | ||||
| Scottish Gaelic | mòr | [moːɾ] | 'big' | Both the lenited and non-initial broad form of r. Often transcribed simply as /r/. The initial unlenited broad form is a trill [rˠ], while the slender form is [ɾʲ] ([ð] in some dialects). See Scottish Gaelic phonology. | |
| Spanish[20] | caro | 'expensive' | Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology | ||
| Tagalog | biro | [ˈbiɾɔʔ] | 'joke' | See Tagalog phonology | |
| Tamil | மரம் | [maɾam] | 'tree' | See Tamil phonology | |
| Thai | Some speakers | พระ / phra | [pʰɾäʔ˦˥] | 'monk' | |
| Turkish[21] | ara | [ˈɑɾɑ] | 'interval' | Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere.[21] See Turkish phonology | |
| Uzbek[22] | ёмғир/yomg‘ir/یامغیر | [ʝɒ̜mˈʁ̟ɨɾ̪] | 'rain' | Denti-alveolar.[22] | |
| West Coast Bajau[23] | bara' | [ba.ɾaʔ] | 'to tell' | Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position. | |
| Wu Chinese | Tongling | 銅陵 | [ɾom.lin] | 'Tongling' | Tones not notated due to complexity of tone sandhi. Equivalent to /d/ in other lects. Also seen in other Xuanzhou Wu varieties |
| Alveolar nasal tap/flap | |
|---|---|
| ɾ̃ | |
| n̆ | |
| IPA Number | 124 424 |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | 4~ or n_X |
Features
Features of the alveolar nasal tap or flap:
- Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
- 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 a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, in this case, in addition to through the mouth.
- 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 solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English[24] | Estuary | twenty | 'twenty' | Allophone of unstressed intervocalic /nt/ for some speakers, especially in rapid or casual speech. See English phonology, North American English regional phonology and flapping | |
| North American[25] | |||||
| Guarani[26] | porã | [põˈɾ̃ã] | 'good' | Nasalized allophone of /ɾ/ as a result of nasal harmony. See Guarani language § Nasal harmony | |
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