Voiced uvular fricative

Voiced uvular fricative
ʁ
ʁ̝
IPA number	143
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʁ
Unicode (hex)	U+0281
X-SAMPA	R
Kirshenbaum	g"
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Sound
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The voiced uvular fricative or approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʁ⟩, an inverted small uppercase letter ⟨ʀ⟩,^[1] or in broad transcription ⟨ɣ⟩ or (if rhotic) ⟨r⟩. This consonant is one of several collectively called guttural R when found in European languages.

Because the IPA symbol stands for both the uvular fricative and the uvular approximant, the fricative nature of this sound may be specified by adding the uptack to the letter: ⟨ʁ̝⟩. The approximant can be specified by adding the downtack: ⟨ʁ̞⟩.

For a voiced pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiced velar fricative.

Features

Features of the voiced uvular fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. In many languages it is closer to an approximant, however, and no language distinguishes the two at the uvular articulation.

• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.

• 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

In Western Europe, a uvular trill pronunciation of rhotic consonants spread from northern French to several dialects and registers of Basque,^[2] Catalan, Danish, Dutch, German, Hebrew, Judaeo-Spanish, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese and Swedish. However, not all of these remain a uvular trill today. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is usually a velar fricative ([x], [ɣ]), voiceless uvular fricative [χ], or glottal transition ([h], [ɦ]), except in southern Brazil and Rio de Janeiro, where alveolar, velar and uvular trills and the voiced uvular fricative predominate. Because such uvular rhotics often do not contrast with alveolar ones, IPA transcriptions may often use ⟨r⟩ to represent them for ease of typesetting. For more information, see guttural R.

Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note that "There is (...) a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."^[3] See voiced uvular raised non-sonorant trill for more information.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		цыҕ	[tsəʁ]	'marten'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		тыгъэ tâğă	[təʁa]	'sun'
Aleut	Atkan dialect	chamĝul	[tʃɑmʁul]	'to wash'
Arabic	Modern Standard[4]	غرفة	[ˈʁurfɐ]	'room'	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[5] See Arabic phonology
Archi		гъӀабос	[ʁˤabos]	'croak'
Armenian	Eastern[6]	ղեկ	[ʁɛk]	'rudder'
Avar		тIагъур	[tʼaˈʁur]	'cap'
Berber	Kabyle	bbeɣ	[bːəʁ]	'to dive'
Chilcotin		[ʁəlkɪʃ]		'he walks'
Danish	Standard[7]	rød	[ʁ̞ɶð̞]	'red'	Most often an approximant when initial.[8] In other positions, it can be either a fricative (also described as voiceless [χ]) or an approximant[7] Also described as pharyngeal [ʕ̞].[9] See Danish phonology
Dutch[10][11][12][13][14]	Belgian Limburg[13][15]	rad	[ʁɑt]	'wheel'	Either a fricative[12][13][14][16] or an approximant,[13][14][17][18] depending on the speaker. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	Central Netherlands[19]
	East Flanders[15]
	Northern Netherlands[19]
	Randstad[19]
	Southern Netherlands[19]
English	Dyfed[20]	red	[ʁɛd]	'red'	Not all speakers.[20] Alveolar in other Welsh accents.
	Gwynedd[20]
	North-east Leinster[21]				Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɾ ~ ɻ] in other Irish dialects.
	Northumbrian dialect[22][23]				Described both as a fricative[22] and an approximant.[23] More rarely it's a trill [ʀ].[22] It's a dialectal "Northumbrian Burr", mostly found in eastern Northumberland, declining. See English phonology
	Sierra Leonean[22]				More rarely a trill [ʀ].[22]
French		rester	[ʁɛste]	'to stay'	See French phonology
German	Lower Rhine[24]	Rost	[ʁɔst]	'rust'	Either a fricative or, more often, an approximant. In free variation with a uvular trill. See German phonology
	Standard[24]
	Swabian German[25]		[ʁ̞oʃt]		An approximant.[25] It's the realization of /ʁ/ in onsets,[25] otherwise it's an epiglottal approximant.[25]
Hebrew		רע	[ʁa]	'bad'	May also be trilled. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Inuktitut	East Inuktitut dialect	marruuk	[mɑʁʁuuk]	'two'
Kabardian		гъэ	[ʁa]	'year'
Kazakh		саған sağan	[sɑˈʁɑn]	'you (singular dative)'
Kyrgyz		жамгыр	[dʒɑmˈʁɯr]	'rain'
Lakota		aǧúyapi	[aʁʊjapɪ]	'bread'
Malay	Perak dialect	Perak	[peʁɑk̚]	'Perak (name of state)'	See Malay phonology
Norwegian	Southern dialects	rar	[ʁ̞ɑːʁ̞]	'strange'	Either an approximant or, more rarely, a fricative. See Norwegian phonology
	Southwestern dialects
Portuguese	European[26]	carro	[ˈkaʁu]	'car'	Due to French influence, Setúbal's dialect entirely merged /ɾ/ into /ʁ/. Often trilled. See Portuguese phonology
	Setubalense[27]	ruralizar	[ʁuʁəɫiˈzaʁ]	'to ruralize'
	Fluminense[27][28]	ardência	[ɐʁˈdẽsjə]	'burning feeling', 'stinging'	Due to French influence, Rio de Janeiro's dialect merged coda /ɾ/ into /ʁ/, which was later expanded to General Brazilian because of its intolerance for coda liquids.[29] Often trilled (which is associated with emphatic speech in most of Brazil). If as coda, generally in free variation with [ɣ], [ʕ] and [ɦ] before voiced, and [x], [χ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants
	Sulista	arroz	[ɐˈʁos]	'rice'
Sakha		тоҕус tog‘us	[toʁus]	'nine'
Swedish	Southern dialects	rör	[ʁɶʁ]	'pipe(s)'	See Swedish phonology
Tatar		яңгыр, yañğır	[jɒŋˈʁɯr]	'rain'
Tsez		агъи ’ag‘i	[ˈʔaʁi]	'bird'
Ubykh		[ʁa]		'his'	Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonology
Upper Saxon	Chemnitz dialect[30]	Rock	[ʁɔkʰ]	'skirt'	Either a fricative or an approximant;[30] they're in free variation with [ʀ̥], [χ] and [q].[30] Doesn't occur in the coda.[30]
Yiddish		רעגן	[ˈʁɛɡŋ]	'rain'	See Yiddish phonology
Zhuang		roek	[ʁɔ̌k]	'six'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Guttural

References

Bibliography

• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5 
• Booij, Geert (1999), The phonology of Dutch, Oxford University Press 
• Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003), The Phonetics of English and Dutch, Fifth Revised Edition (PDF), ISBN 9004103406 
• Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223 
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company 
• Goeman, Ton; Van de Velde, Hans (2001), "Co-occurrence constraints on /r/ and /ɣ/ in Dutch dialects", in Van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland, 'r-atics (PDF), Brussels: Etudes & Travaux, pp. 91–112, ISSN 0777-3692 
• Hall, Tracy Alan (1993), "The phonology of German /ʀ/", Phonology 10 (1): 83–105, doi:10.1017/S0952675700001743 
• Hickey, Raymond (2007). Irish English: History and Present-day Forms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85299-4. 
• Kachru, Yamuna (2006), Hindi, John Benjamins Publishing, ISBN 90-272-3812-X 
• Khan, Sameer ud Dowla; Weise, Constanze (2013), "Upper Saxon (Chemnitz dialect)", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 43 (2): 231–241, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000145 
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. 
• Ogden, Richard (2009), An Introduction to English Phonetics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd., ISBN 978-0-7486-2540-6 
• Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar 
• Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173 
• Verstraten, Bart; Van de Velde, Hans (2001), "Socio-geographical variation of /r/ in standard Dutch", in Van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland, 'r-atics (PDF), Brussels: Etudes & Travaux, pp. 45–61, ISSN 0777-3692 
• Watson, Janet C. E. (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press 
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English, 2: The British Isles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

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 Palato­alveolar 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