Voiced dental and alveolar taps and flaps

A 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 could be written in non-standard IPA with the tap as ⟨ɾ⟩ and the flap as ⟨ɽ⟩, the retroflex letter being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge, though it could be written less ambiguously with the Americanist letter ⟨⟩ (or IPA ⟨⟩) for the tap and standard IPA ⟨ɾ⟩ for the flap. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap) and "party" (flap).

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.

As a phoneme, the sound is analyzed as a rhotic consonant. 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.

If an alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with ⟨r⟩ in broad transcription, despite that symbol technically representing a trill.

A voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative.

Voiced alveolar tap and flap

Voiced alveolar tap or flap
ɾ
IPA number124
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɾ
Unicode (hex)U+027E
X-SAMPA4
Braille
Voiced postalveolar flap
ɾ̠

Features

Features of a voiced alveolar tap or flap:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Albanian Standard Shqipëri [ʃc͡ɕipəˈɾi] 'Albania' Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Arabic Egyptian[2] رجل [ˈɾeɡɫ̩] 'leg' See Egyptian Arabic phonology.
Lebanese إجر [ˈʔəʒəɾ] 'wages'
Moroccan رما / rma [ɾma] 'he threw'
South Iraqi أريد [ˈaɾiːd] 'I want'
Aragonese aragonés [äɾäɣ̞o̞ˈne̞s] 'Aragonese' Contrasts with /r/.
Armenian Eastern[3] րոպե [ɾo̞pɛ̝́] 'minute' Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Assyrian ܪܫܐ / rìsha [ɾiʃa] 'head'
Asturian hora [ˈo̞ɾä] 'hour' Contrasts with /r/.
Azerbaijani qara / قارا [ɡɑˈɾɑ] 'black'
Basque begiratu [be̞ˈɣ̞iɾäˌt̪u] 'look' Contrasts with /r/. See Basque phonology.
Bengali ত্রি [t̪ɾiʃ] 'dear' Mostly pronounced [ɹ]. But may occur some word-medially and finally against [ɾ]. See Bengali phonology.
গাড়ি [ˈɡɐɾ̠iˑ] 'car' Apical postalveolar flaps; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms.[4] See Bengali phonology.
Catalan[5] truc [ˈtɾuk] 'trick' Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology.
Danish[6][7] nordisk [ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk] 'Nordic' Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ between phonetic vowels.[6][7] 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[8] better [ˈbe̞ɾɐ] 'better' Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ ~ ]. See Flapping.
Australian[9] [ˈbeɾɐ] Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/. See Australian English phonology, New Zealand English phonology and Flapping.
New Zealand[10]
Dublin[11] [ˈbɛɾɚ] 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[12]
Ulster
West Country
Irish three [θɾ̊iː] 'three' Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents.
Scottish[13] Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r].
Older Received Pronunciation[14] Allophone of /ɹ/.
Scouse[13]
South African[13] Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead.
Esperanto Esperanto [espeˈɾanto] 'one who hopes' Usually a flap [ɾ], but can be a trilled r, depending on speaker. See Esperanto phonology.
Finnish rotta [ˈɾo̞t̪ːɑ] 'rat' Occurs in Häme (Tampere) dialect, contrasts with r in standard Finnish. See Finnish phonology.
Greek[15] μηρός / mirós [miˈɾ̠o̞s̠] 'thigh' Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology.
Gokana[16] bele [beːɾ̠eː] 'we' Apical postalveolar. Allophone of /l/, medially between vowels within the morpheme, and finally in the morpheme before a following vowel in the same word. It can be a postalveolar trill or simply [l] instead.[16]
Hindustani मेरा/میرا [ˈmeːɾäː] 'my' Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. See Hindustani phonology.
ड़ा/بڑا [ˈbɐɾ̠äː] 'big' Apical postalveolar flaps; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms.[17] See Hindustani phonology.
Hungarian kar [ˈkɒɾ] 'arm' Allophone of /r/. See Hungarian phonology.
Irish fear [fʲaɾˠ] 'man' See Irish phonology.
Italian Standard era [ˈɛːɾä] 'era' Intervocalic realization of /r/.
Sicilian drago [ˈdɾaːɡu] 'dragon'
Kinyarwanda u Rwanda [u‿ɾgwɑːⁿdɑ] 'Rwanda'
Japanese /こころ kokoro [ko̞ko̞ɾo̞ꜜ] 'heart' [18] Varies with [ɺ].[19] See Japanese phonology.
Kazakh бер / ber [be̞ɾ] 'give' In free variation with trilled /r/. See Kazakh phonology.
Korean 여름 / yeoreum [jʌ̹̀ɾɯ́m] 'summer' Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/. See Korean phonology.
Kyrgyz кырк / kyrk [qɯɾq] 'forty' See Kyrgyz phonology.
Malay راتوس / ratus [ɾä.tos] 'hundred' Common realization of /r/. May be a trilled [r] or postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠]. See Malay phonology.
Malayalam /vara [ʋɐɾɐ] 'line' or 'drawing' See Malayalam phonology
Māori whare [ˈɸaɾɛ] 'house' Sometimes trilled.
Marathi वारा [ʋaːɾaː] 'wind'
Nepali[20] तारा [t̪äɾä] 'star' Intervocalic allophone of /r/. See Nepali phonology.
भाड़ा [bʱäɾ̠ä] 'rent' Apical postalveolar flaps; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.[21] See Nepali phonology.
Norwegian[22] bare [ˈbɑ̂ːɾə] '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'
ଗାଡ଼ି [ɡäɾ̠iː] 'car' Apical postalveolar flaps; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.[23]
Polish który [ˈkt̪uɾɘ̟] 'which' Common realization of /r/. See Polish phonology.
Portuguese[24] prato [ˈpɾatʊ] '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 r [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.
Shipibo[25] roro [ˈɾ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽] 'to break' Apical postalveolar; possible realization of /r/.[25]
Spanish[26] caro [ˈkaɾo̞] 'expensive' Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology.
Tagalog biro [ˈbiɾɔʔ] 'joke' See Tagalog phonology.
Tamil ம் / maram [mɐɾɐ́m] 'tree' See Tamil phonology.
Thai Some speakers ะ / phrá [pʰɾäʔ˦˥] 'monk'
Turkish[27] ara [ɑˈɾɑ] 'interval' Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere.[27] See Turkish phonology.
Turkmen gara [ɢɑˈɾɑ] 'black'
Uzbek[28] ёмғир / yomg‘ir / یامغیر [ʝɒ̽mˈʁ̟ɨ̞ɾ̪] 'rain' Denti-alveolar.[28] See Uzbek phonology.
West Coast Bajau[29] bara' [ba.ɾaʔ] 'to tell' Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position.
Wu Chinese Xuanzhou Wu 銅陵 [ɾom.lin] 'Tongling' Found in various Xuanzhou localities, with that of Tongling provided. Tones not notated due to complexity of tone sandhi. Equivalent to /d/ in other lects.[30]

Alveolar nasal tap and flap

Alveolar nasal tap/flap
ɾ̃
IPA number124 424
Encoding
X-SAMPA4~ or n_X

Features

Features of an alveolar nasal tap or flap:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English[31] Estuary twenty [ˈtʰw̥ɛ̃ɾ̃i] '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[32]
Guarani[33] porã [põˈɾ̃ã] 'good' Nasalized allophone of /ɾ/ as a result of nasal harmony. See Guarani language § Nasal harmony

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Valentin-Marquez (2008)
  2. ^ Watson (2002:16)
  3. ^ Dum-Tragut (2009:19)
  4. ^ Mazumdar (2000:57)
  5. ^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
  6. ^ a b Grønnum (2005:157)
  7. ^ a b Basbøll (2005:126)
  8. ^ Wells (1982:324–325)
  9. ^ Cox & Palethorpe (2007:343)
  10. ^ Trudgill & Hannah (2002:24)
  11. ^ "Glossary". Retrieved 2021-05-22.
  12. ^ Ogden (2009:114)
  13. ^ a b c Ogden (2009:92)
  14. ^ Wise (1957:?)
  15. ^ Arvaniti (2007:15–18)
  16. ^ a b L.F. Brosnahan. "Outlines of the phonology of the Gokana dialect of Ogoni" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-04-03. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  17. ^ Tiwari (2004:?)
  18. ^ Labrune (2012), p. 92.
  19. ^ Akamatsu (1997), p. 106.
  20. ^ Khatiwada, Rajesh (December 2009). "Nepali". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 373–380. doi:10.1017/S0025100309990181. ISSN 1475-3502.
  21. ^ Khatiwada (2009:374)
  22. ^ Kristoffersen, Gjert (2015). "En innføring i norsk fonologi" [An introduction to Norwegian phonology] (PDF) (in Norwegian) (4 ed.). University of Bergen. p. 21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2020-07-09. I østlandsk er denne lyden normalt en såkalt tapp
  23. ^ Masica (1991:107)
  24. ^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
  25. ^ a b Valenzuela, Márquez Pinedo & Maddieson (2001:282)
  26. ^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
  27. ^ a b Yavuz & Balcı (2011:25)
  28. ^ a b Sjoberg (1963:13)
  29. ^ Miller, Mark T. (2007). A Grammar of West Coast Bajau (Ph.D. thesis). University of Texas at Arlington. p. 34. hdl:10106/577.
  30. ^ Jiang, Bingbing (2003), 吴语宣州片方言音韵研究, Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, p. 41–42, ISBN 7-5617-3299-6
  31. ^ Kwan-Young Oh. "Reanalysis of Flapping on Level Approach". Retrieved 2023-04-29.
  32. ^ Tomasz P. Szynalski. "Flap t FAQ". Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  33. ^ Walker (2011:9–10)

References

  • Akamatsu, Tsutomu (1997). Japanese Phonetics: Theory and Practice. München: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-095-6.
  • 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
  • Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
  • Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809
  • Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007), "Australian English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 341–349, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003192
  • Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876
  • Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene (PDF), Kansas: University of Kansas
  • Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
  • Kleine, Ane (2003), "Standard Yiddish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 261–265, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001385
  • Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
  • Lass, Roger (1987), "Intradiphthongal Dependencies", in Anderson, John; Durand, Jacques (eds.), Explorations in Dependency Phonology, Dordrecht: Foris Publications Holland, pp. 109–131, ISBN 9067652970
  • Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Mannheim: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7
  • Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
  • Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
  • Mazumdar, Bijaychandra (2000) [First published 1920], The history of the Bengali language, New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, ISBN 8120614526
  • Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
  • Ogden, Richard (2009), An Introduction to English Phonetics, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2541-3
  • Šimáčková, Šárka; Podlipský, Václav Jonáš; Chládková, Kateřina (2012), "Czech spoken in Bohemia and Moravia" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 225–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000102
  • Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
  • Šuštaršič, Rastislav; Komar, Smiljana; Petek, Bojan (1999), "Slovene", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, pp. 135–139, ISBN 0-521-65236-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  • Tiwari, Bholanath (2004) [First published 1966], Hindī Bhāshā, Kitāb Mahal: Kitāb Mahal, ISBN 81-225-0017-X
  • Trudgill, Peter; Hannah, Jean (2002), International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed, p. 24
  • Valentin-Marquez, Wilfredo (2008), "Doing Being Boricua: Perceptions of National Identity and the Sociolinguistic Distribution of Liquid Variables in Puerto Rican Spanish", Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 1 (2): 451–454, doi:10.1515/shll-2008-1031, S2CID 147068871
  • Valenzuela, Pilar M.; Márquez Pinedo, Luis; Maddieson, Ian (2001), "Shipibo", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 31 (2): 281–285, doi:10.1017/S0025100301002109
  • Walker, Rachel (2011). "Nasal Harmony". In van Oostendorp, Marc; Ewen, Colin J.; Hume, Elizabeth; Rice, Keren (eds.). The Blackwell companion to phonology (PDF). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781405184236.
  • Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
  • Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003180
  • Wells, John (1982), Accents of English 2: The British Isles, Cambridge University Press, pp. 324–325, ISBN 978-0-521-28540-7
  • Wise, Claude Merton (1957), Introduction to Phonetics, Englewood Cliffs{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Yavuz, Handan; Balcı, Ayla (2011), Turkish Phonology and Morphology (PDF), Eskişehir: Anadolu Üniversitesi, ISBN 978-975-06-0964-0