Retroflex lateral approximant
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| Retroflex lateral approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɭ | |||
| IPA number | 156 | ||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ɭ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+026D | ||
| X-SAMPA | l` | ||
| Kirshenbaum | l. | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Listen | |||
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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`.
The retroflex lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ɭ̊/ in Iaai and Toda.[1] In both of these languages it also contrasts with more anterior /l̥, l/, which are dental in Iaai and alveolar in Toda.[1]
Contents
Features[edit]
Features of the retroflex lateral 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 retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
- 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence[edit]
In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ɭ̺] and laminal [ɭ̻].
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bashkir | ел |  [jɪ̞ɭ] (help·info)
|
'wind' | Apical retroflex lateral; occurs in front vowel contexts. | |
| Enindhilyagwa | marluwiya | [maɭuwija] | 'emu' | ||
| Faroese | árla | [ɔɻɭa] | 'early' | Allophone of /l/ after /ɹ/. See Faroese phonology | |
| French | Standard[2] | belle jambe | [bɛɭ ʒɑ̃b] | 'beautiful leg' | Allophone of /l/ before /f/ and /ʒ/ for some speakers.[2] See French phonology |
| Kannada | ಎಳ್ಳು | [ˈeɭɭu] | 'sesame' | Represented by a ⟨ಳ⟩ | |
| Khanty | Eastern dialects | пуӆ | [puɭ] | 'bit' | |
| Some northern dialects | |||||
| Korean | 하늘 | [hɐnɯɭ] | 'sky' | Represented by a ⟨ㄹ⟩. May also be pronounced as /l/. Pronounced as /ɾ/ syllable-initial | |
| Malayalam | മലയാളി | [mɐl̪əjɐ̞ːɭ̺ɪ] (help·info)
|
'Malayalam people' | Represented by a ⟨ള⟩. Apical. Never word-initial and long and short forms are contrastive word-medially[3] | |
| Mapudungun[4] | mara | [ˈmɐ̝ɭɜ] | 'hare' | Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɻ] instead.[4] | |
| Marathi | बाळ | [baːɭ] | 'baby/child' | Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩. Pronounced as /ɭə/. See Marathi phonology. | |
| Miyako | Irabu dialect | 昼間 ピィルマ |
[pɭːma] | 'daytime' | Allophone of /ɾ/ used everywhere except syllable-initially. |
| Norwegian | Eastern and central dialects | farlig | [ˈfɑːɭi] | 'dangerous' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Rajasthani | फळ | [pʰəɭ] | 'fruit' | Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩. | |
| Punjabi | ਤ੍ਰੇਲ਼ | [t̪ɾeɭ] | 'dew' | Represented by a ⟨ਲ਼⟩. Mostly found in rural dialects | |
| Swedish | sorl | [soːɭ] (help·info)
|
'murmur' (noun) | See Swedish phonology | |
| Tamil[5] | புளி | [puɭi] | 'tamarind' | Represented by a ⟨ள்⟩. See Tamil phonology | |
| Telugu | నీళ్ళు | [niːɭːu] | 'water' | Represented by a ⟨ళ⟩ | |
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 198.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 192.
- ^ Jiang (2010), pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
- ^ Keane (2004), p. 111.
References[edit]
- Jiang, Haowen (April 2010), Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text, Department of Linguistics, Rice University
- Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369
- Shimoji, Michinori (December 2008), "Phonology", A Grammar of Irabu, a Southern Ryukyuan Language, The Australian National University
