A voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English-speakers as the sound in rose (though typically ). The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents it is , a lowercase Latin letter rotated 180 degrees.
Features
Features of a voiced alveolar approximant:
Occurrence
Alveolar Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Albanian Standard libër 'book' Allophone of . See Albanian phonology Armenian Classical 'coffee' Assamese ৰঙা (rônga) 'red' Assyrian Neo-Aramaic Alqosh dialect 'many' Corresponds to in most other Assyrian dialects.Tyari dialectBengali 'Marma' Phonetic realisation of /r/, especially in some Eastern Dialects and sometimes in conjunct before consonants. Corresponds to [ ~ ] in others. See Bengali phonology Burmese 'furniture' Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English. Catalan Some dialects 'still' Allophone of between vowels. See Catalan phonology. Dutch Central Netherlandic 'Dutchmen' Allophone of in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology. Western Netherlandic Leiden 'rat' Corresponds to in other dialects.German Moselle Franconian (Siegerland, cited in Universität zu Köln: Phonologische Analyse and WesterwaldWäller Platt: Die Aussprache dialects) 'vine' Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative , a uvular trill or an alveolar trill . See Standard German phonology. Silesian Upper Lusatian Greek /méra 'day' Allophone of in rapid or casual speech and between vowels. See Modern Greek phonology. Persian 'Persian'Allophone of before /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /l/. See Persian phonology. Portuguese Multiple Brazilian dialects, mostly inland Centro-Sul 'love' Allophone of in the syllable coda. Velarized, may also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or a rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology. Spanish Andalusian citing and doscientos 'two hundred' Allophone of before [θ]. See Spanish phonology. Belizeaninvierno'winter'Possible realization of in the syllable coda due to English influence. Caribbean Colombian Puerto Rican Costa Rican chorro 'spurt' Allophone of , and of before . See Costa Rican Spanish. Swedish Central (Stockholm area) 'a domain' Allophone of , especially word-finally and post-vocalically. See Swedish phonology. Tagalog 'like-' Allophone of the more usual and traditional flap or trill and is sometimes thus pronounced by some younger speakers due to exposure to mainstream English. Turkish Marmara Region 'excess, surplus' Occurs as an allophone of in syllable coda, in free variation with post-alveolar . See Turkish phonology. Vietnamese Saigon 'to stretch' In free variation with , and . See Vietnamese phonology. Zapotec Tilquiapan rdɨ 'pass' Allophone of before consonants.
Non-rhotic alveolar
Some languages have a voiced (post)alveolar approximant that is acoustically distinct from a typical , which has variously been described as being '-like,' 'non-rhotic', or 'non-sulcalized'. Some authors have reported the distinction as one of active articulation, with the formerly mentioned sound being classified as laminal, while a typical is distinguished as apical; though other authors have reported sounds of this type as being explicitly apical. Somewhat less controversially, the distinction may also be made as a featural classing, between a 'rhotic approximant' and a 'spirant approximant' or 'frictionless continuant'. These two latter terms are now used synonymously, though both recall older terms with slightly different meanings; they now refer to all approximants that are both non-liquid (rhotic and lateral) and non-semivowel.
The International Phonetic Alphabet has no symbol to represent this sound, but possible transcriptions with diacritics include (a lowered ) and (a lowered and retracted ), both of which have been used in literature. Several symbols have been proposed to represent this sound, but none have become widely accepted. In Sinological circles, the symbol has also been used for this sound, where it has often been referred to as an 'apical vowel'.
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Danish Standard 'at' Laminal and velarized; allophone of in the syllable coda. For a minority of speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead. See Danish phonology. Extreme Southern Italian Sicilian 'rare' Corresponds to in standard Italian, as well as word-initial . Can be alveolar or postalveolar , depending on the speaker, both of which may also be geminated. Described as 'non-sulcalized sonorants', articulated without contact, though may retain some degree of frication; may be closer to a non-sibilant fricative, depending on the speaker. Calabro Salentino Icelandic 'a wallpaper' Usually apical. In free variation with a weak fricative ;: "[It is] doubtful whether the voiced fricatives are to be classified as such, rather than as approximants." "The weakness of the articulation of the voiced sounds makes them at times more like approximants, and they are very easily deleted intervocalically in natural speech[.]" variably removed from the front teeth, up to (nearly) spot on . See Icelandic phonology. Miyakoan Irabu 'father' Realized as when word initial, geminate when presyllabic, variable when medial, and plain when word final. Phonemically transcribed as or . Devoiced to following a voiceless bilabial plosive . See
Postalveolar
The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the voiced postalveolar approximant, pronounced further back than a typical and transcribed more precisely in IPA as , but is often used for convenience in its place. For further ease of typesetting, English phonemic transcriptions might use the symbol even though this symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.
The voiced velar bunched approximant , often called bunched or molar r, sounds remarkably similar to the postalveolar approximant, as does the voiced retroflex approximant .
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes English Australian red 'red' Often labialized. May also be a labialized retroflex approximant. For convenience it is often transcribed . See Australian English phonology, English phonology, Rhoticity in English and Pronunciation of English /r/. Received Pronunciation Most American dialects citing , , and car 'car' Not labialized. Faroese 'a groin' Ranges from post-alveolar to retroflex. More often realised as a fricative. See Faroese phonology. Igbo '4th and last day of the week, West' Malay / 'hundred' More commonly trill [] or flap []. See Malay phonology Maltese Some dialects 'quickly' Corresponds to in other dialects. Shipibo roro 'to break into pieces' Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of .
As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan.
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links