Retroflex lateral approximant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IPA – number	156
IPA – text	ɭ
IPA – image
Entity	ɭ
X-SAMPA	l`
Kirshenbaum	l.
Sound sample (help·info)

The retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɭ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l`.

Contents 1 Features 2 Occurs in 2.1 Sub-apical postalveolar 2.2 Apical postalveolar 3 See also

[edit] Features

Features of the retroflex lateral approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by bringing one articulator close to another but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized.
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, rather than the middle of the tongue.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Occurs in

[edit] Sub-apical postalveolar

This is the prototypical retroflex articulation. It is found in such Dravidian languages as Tamil [1], Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Toda, as well as such Australian Aboriginal languages as Kaititj, Yanyuwa, and Iwaidja, at least in careful speech.

[edit] Apical postalveolar

This is perhaps the more common retroflex articulation. It is found in Indic languages such as Marathi and Panjabi. These languages have /ɭ/ as a phoneme, but Norwegian and Swedish feature [ɭ] as a phonetic assimilation of /r/ and /l/:

• In eastern and central dialects of Norwegian assimilations of 'rl' might be pronounced [ɭ] (like in farlig "dangerous"). The sound is regarded as a phoneme since there exist minimal pairs (like kal [kaːl] "bare" and Karl [kaːɭ] "male name").
• Swedish sorl (help·info) [soːɭ] "murmur" (noun).

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  β̞ ʋ ð̞ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps ѵ̟ ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  ʦ ʣ ʧ ʤ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.