Voiceless alveolar trill

The voiceless alveolar trill differs from the voiced alveolar trill /r/ only by the vibrations of the vocal cord. It occurs in a few languages, usually alongside the voiced version, as a similar phoneme or an allophone.

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

Proto-Indo-European *sr developed into a sound spelled ⟨ῥ⟩, with the letter for /r/ and the diacritic for /h/, in Ancient Greek. It was probably a voiceless alveolar trill and became the regular word-initial allophone of /r/ in standard Attic Greek that has disappeared in Modern Greek.

• PIE *srew- > Ancient Greek ῥέω "flow", possibly [r̥é.ɔː]

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar trill:

• Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by directing air over an articulator so that it vibrates.
• Its place of articulation is dental, alveolar or post-alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth, at the alveolar ridge or behind the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.^[1]
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it 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.
• 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

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dharumbal[2]		barhi	[ˈbar̥i]	'stone'	Contrasts with /r/.
Estonian[3]		[example needed]			Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t, s, h/.[3] See Estonian phonology
Dutch		herinvoering	[ɦɛr̥ɪnvuːrɪŋ]	'reinstatement'	Possible word-final allophone of /r/;
Icelandic		hrafn	[ˈr̥apn̥]	'raven'	Contrasts with /r/. For some speakers it may actually be a voiceless flap. Also illustrates [n̥]. See Icelandic phonology
Konda[4]		puRi	[pur̥i]	'ant hill'	Contrasts /ɾ r r̥ ɽ/.[5]
Lezgian[6]		крчар/krčar	[ˈkʰr̥t͡ʃar]	'horns'	Allophone of /r/ between voiceless obstruents
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect[7]	geer	[ɣeːr̥]	'odour'	Possible word-final allophone of /r/; may be uvular [ʀ̥] instead.[8] See Hasselt dialect phonology
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/
Northern Sámi		čahrrat	[ˈt͡ʃar̥.r̥ah(t)]	'to talk or laugh noisily'
Polish		krtań	[ˈkr̥täɲ̟]	'larynx'	Allophone of /r/ when surrounded by voiceless consonants, or word finally after voiceless consonants. See Polish phonology
Ukrainian[9]		центр/centr	[t̪͡s̪ɛn̪t̪r̥]	'centre'	Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t/.[9] See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		Rhagfyr	[ˈr̥aɡvɨr]	'December'	Contrasts with /r/. See Welsh phonology
Yaygirr		dirha	[ˈdir̥a]	'tooth'	Contrasts with /r/.
Zapotec	Quiegolani[10]	rsil	[r̥sil]	'early'	Allophone of /r/.[10]

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 occur as a phoneme in any language, except possibly the East Sakhalin dialect of Nivkh. It occurs allophonically in Czech.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar fricative trill:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative trill, which means it is a non-sibilant fricative and a trill pronounced simultaneously.
• Its place of articulation is laminal alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge,
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it 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.
• 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
Czech[11][12]		tři sta	[ˈt̪r̝̊ɪs̪t̪ä]	'three hundred'	Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants;[13][12] may be a tapped fricative instead.[12] See Czech phonology
Norwegian	Areas around Narvik[14]	norsk	[nɔr̝̊k]	'Norwegian'	Allophone of the sequence /ɾs/ before voiceless consonants.[14]
	Some subdialects of Trøndersk[14]
Nivkh	(East) Sakhalin dialect	р̌ы	[r̝̊ɨ]	'door'	Contrasts with /r/. In the Amur dialect, typically realized 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, 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/, and speakers maintaining the distinction (which is mostly the elderly) sporadically do so too.
Silesian	Gmina Istebna	[example needed]			Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants. It's pronounced the same as /ʂ/ in most Polish dialects
	Jablunkov	[example needed]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles