Voiced alveolar approximant
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɹ⟩ in IPA
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Features
Features of a voiced 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most speech sounds.
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Occurrence
Alveolar
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'.
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 .
As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan.