Alveolar approximant

Alveolar approximant
ɹ
ð̠˕
IPA number	151
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɹ
Unicode (hex)	U+0279
X-SAMPA	r\ or D_r_o
Kirshenbaum	r
Braille
Image
Sound
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Postalveolar approximant
ɹ̠
Sound
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The alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is ⟨ɹ⟩, a lowercase letter r rotated 180 degrees. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ⟨r\⟩. There is no separate symbol for the dental approximant (as in Spanish nada) in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which most scholars transcribe with the symbol for voiced dental fricative, that is ⟨ð⟩.

The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the postalveolar approximant, considered a distinct pronunciation of the alveolar approximant and transcribed more precisely in IPA as ⟨ɹ̠⟩. For ease of typesetting, English phonemic transcriptions might use the symbol ⟨r⟩ instead of ⟨ɹ⟩, even though the former symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.

Features

Features of the 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Armenian	Eastern	սուրճ	[suɹtʃ]	'coffee'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		[ɹɑbɑ]		'many'	Used only in Tyari and Alqosh dialects. The /ɾ/ is predominantly used in most of Assyrian dialects
Burmese[1][2]		တိရစ္ဆာန်	[təɹeɪʔsʰàɴ]	'animal'	Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English
Chukchi		ңирэк	[ŋiɹek]	'two'
Danish	Standard[3][4][5]	ved	[ʋɪð̠˕ˠ]	'at, by'	Velarized laminal.[3][4][5] Weak, acoustically similar to [ɯ] or [ɤ].[4] It may be syllabic.[6] An allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda, and most often transcribed ⟨ð⟩. For few speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead.[5] See Danish phonology
Dutch	Central Netherlandic	door	[doːɹ]	'through'	Allophone of /r/ in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology
	Western Netherlandic
	Leiden	rat	[ɹat]	'rat'	Dialect of this city, unlike any other, uses [ɹ] for every instance of /r/
English	most American dialects[7]	red	[ɹ̠ʷɛd]	'red'	Often retracted and labialized. Has been lost in non-rhotic varieties except before a vowel. May also be a labialized retroflex approximant; corresponds to an [r] or [ɾ] in a few other dialects. For convenience it is often transcribed ⟨r⟩. See English phonology
	Australian
	Received Pronunciation
Faroese		róður	[ɹɔuwʊɹ]	'rudder'
German	Siegerland[8]	Rebe	[ˈɹeːbə]	'vine shoot'	Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative or uvular trill. See German phonology
	Silesian German
	Upper Lusatian
	Westerwald[9]
Greek[10]		μέρα méra	[ˈmɛɹɐ]	'day'	Allophone of /r/ in rapid or casual speech. See Modern Greek phonology
Icelandic		bróðir	[ˈproːð̠˕ir]	'brother'	Usually apical. See Icelandic phonology
Igbo[11]		rí	[ɹí]	'eat'	Post-alveolar
Limburgish	Montfortian dialect[12]	maintenant	[ˈmæ̃ːn˦ð̠˕ənɑ̃ː˨]	'now'
Persian		فارسی	[fɒːɹˈsiː]	'Persian'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before /l/, /s/, /ʃ/, /z/, and /ʒ/. See Persian phonology.
Portuguese	General Brazilian[13]	marketing	[ˈmaɹke̞tɕĩ]	'marketing'	Allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ] in recent loanwords, used even by many speakers who do not use coda alveolar, post-alveolar or retroflex approximants in native words. Varies individually. Generally not as onset or final e.g. trailer [ˈtɾejle̞ʁ].
	Greater São Paulo[14]	permitir	[pe̞ɹmiˈtɕiɾ]	'to allow', 'to enable'	Some or all coda /ɾ/ may instead be a guttural or an approximant, varying by speaker, albeit more likely to be aspirated or deleted altogether than to be an approximant among native speakers when as final. See Portuguese phonology.
	Inland Brazilian Centro-Sul's metro cities[15]	amor	[aˈmoɹ]	'love', 'dear'	Allophone of [ɾ ~ ʁ] in the syllable coda. May also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or rhotic vowel. As most rhotic coda in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, likely to get deleted as final or at the end of sentences
Spanish	Some dialects[16]	doscientos	[do̞ɹˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s]	'two hundred'	Allophone of /s/ in the syllable coda. See Spanish phonology
	Puerto Rican	invierno	[imˈbjeɹno]	'winter'	Sometimes occurs at syllable coda, an influence of American English. See Puerto Rican Spanish phonology
Swedish	Central Standard[17]	starkast	[ˈs̪t̪äɹːkäs̪t̪]	'strongest'	Allophone of /r/. Some speakers have [ɾ] ([r] when geminated) in all positions. See Swedish phonology
Vietnamese	Saigon[18]	ra	[ɹa]	'go out'	In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[19]	rdɨ	[ɹd̪ɨ]	'pass'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before any consonant

As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murinh-patha, and Palauan.^[20]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glot­tal ↓ Manner Bi­la­bi­al La­bi­o­den­tal Den­tal Al­ve­o­lar Post­al­ve­o­lar Ret­ro­flex Al­ve­o­lo­pal­a­tal Pal­a­tal Ve­lar U­vu­lar Phar­yn­ge­al Ep­i­glot­tal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r̥ ɽ͡r ʀ̥ ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ‼ ʞ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̝̥ kx kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view