Alveolar and postalveolar approximants
The 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\⟩.
There is no separate symbol for the dental approximant (as in Spanish nada) in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which most scholars transcribe with the symbol for a voiced dental fricative, ⟨ð⟩.
The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the 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 the former symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.
Features
Features of the 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
Alveolar
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armenian | Eastern[citation needed] | սուրճ | [suɹtʃ] | 'coffee' | |
| Assamese | Standard | ৰঙা/rônga | [ɹɔŋa] | 'red' | |
| Assyrian Neo-Aramaic | Alqosh dialect | [ɹɑbɑ] | 'many' | Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects. | |
| Tyari dialect | |||||
| Burmese[1][2] | တိရစ္ဆာန် | [təɹeɪʔsʰàɴ] | 'animal' | Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English | |
| Chukchi[citation needed] | ңирэк | [ŋiɹek] | 'two' | ||
| Dahalo[3] | [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.[4] | ||
| Danish | Standard[5][6][7] | ved | [ʋe̝ð̠˕ˠ] | 'at' | Velarized and laminal; allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda.[5][6][7] For few speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead.[7] 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 | Standard Austrian[8] | Rebe | [ˈɹeːbɛ] | 'vine' | The most common alveolar realization of /r/, with a trill [r] being the alternative realization. The more common uvular realizations are a fricative (either voiced [ʁ] or voiceless [χ]) and, more rarely, a trill [ʀ].[8] See Standard German phonology |
| Siegerland[9] | [ˈɹeːbə] | Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] or a uvular trill [ʀ]. See Standard German phonology | |||
| Silesian | |||||
| Upper Lusatian | |||||
| Westerwald[10] | |||||
| Greek[11] | μέρα méra | [ˈmɛɹɐ] | 'day' | Allophone of /r/ in rapid or casual speech. See Modern Greek phonology | |
| Icelandic | bróðir | [ˈprou̯ð̠˕ir] | 'brother' | Usually apical. See Icelandic phonology | |
| Limburgish | Montfortian dialect[12] | 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 | Inland Brazilian Centro-Sul's metro cities[13] | amor | [aˈmoɹ] | 'love' | Allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ] in the syllable coda. May also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology. |
| General Brazilian[14] | marketing | [ˈmaɹke̞tɕĩ] | 'marketing' | Appears in loanwords, even by speakers who do not use it as an allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ]. Generally not as onset or final e.g. trailer [ˈtɾejle̞ʁ]. | |
| Greater São Paulo[15] | permitir | [pe̞ɹmiˈtɕiɾ] | 'to allow' | ||
| Spanish | Some dialects[16] | doscientos | [do̞ɹˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s] | 'two hundred' | Allophone of /s/ in the syllable coda. See Spanish phonology |
| Belizean | invierno | [imˈbjeɹno] | 'winter' | Possible realization of /r/ in the syllable coda. | |
| Puerto Rican | |||||
| Swedish | Central Standard[17] | 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 traditional [ɾ ~ r] used by the more English-literate younger speakers. | |
| Turkish | tarla | [ʹt̪aɹɫʌ] | 'field' | Allophone of /ɾ/. See Turkish phonology | |
| Vietnamese | Saigon[18] | ra | [ɹa] | 'go out' | In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan[19] | rdɨ | [ɹd̪ɨ] | 'pass' | Allophone of /ɾ/ before any consonant |
Postalveolar
See also: Retroflex approximant
| 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 and Rhoticity in English. |
| Most American dialects[20] |  [ɹ̠ʷɛd] (help·info) |
||||
| Received Pronunciation | |||||
| Igbo[21] | rí | [ɹ̠í] | 'eat' | ||
| Malay | Some Malaysian and Singaporean speakers | baru | [baɹ̠u] | 'new' | Allophone of /r/ because of English influence. |
| Maltese | Some dialects[22] | [example needed] | Corresponds to [ɾ ~ r] in other dialects.[22] | ||
| Shipibo[23] | ? | [ˈd̠ɹ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽] | 'to break into pieces' | Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of /r/.[23] | |
As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murinh-patha, and Palauan.[24]
See also
References
- ^ Cornyn (1944:7)
- ^ Watkins (2001)
- ^ Maddieson et al. (1993:34)
- ^ Maddieson et al. (1993:28, 34)
- ^ a b Basbøll (2005:59 and 63)
- ^ a b Grønnum (2003:121)
- ^ a b c Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:144)
- ^ a b Moosmüller, Schmid & Brandstätter (2015:340–342)
- ^ Kohler (1995:165f), cited in Universität zu Köln: Phonologische Analyse[dead link]
- ^ 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)
- ^ Recent 'lexical loans' from English to Brazilian Portuguese (in Portuguese)
- ^ Syllable coda /r/ in the "capital" of the paulista hinterland: sociolinguistic analisis. Cândida Mara Britto LEITE. Page 111 (page 2 in the attached PDF) (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)
- ^ a b Puech (2013:74)
- ^ a b Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:240–241)
Bibliography
- Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv
- Bakkes, Pierre (2007), Mofers Waordebook (in Dutch), 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., 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, 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, 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
- 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 0-631-19814-8.
- Maddieson, Ian; Spajić, Siniša; Sands, Bonny; Ladefoged, Peter (1993), "Phonetic structures of Dahalo", in Maddieson, Ian, UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages, 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 (03): 339–348, doi:10.1017/S0025100315000055
- Puech, Gilbert (2013), "Prime constituents of Maltese sounds", in Borg, Albert; Caruana, Sandro; Vella, Alexandra, Perspectives on Maltese Linguistics, Berlin: Akademie Verlag GmbH, pp. 61–88, ISBN 978-3-05-006275-4
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