Voiced retroflex approximant

The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is a turned lowercase letter r with a rightward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter.

The velar bunched approximant found in some varieties of Dutch and American English sounds similar to the retroflex approximant but it has a very different articulation.

Features

File:Voiced retroflex approximant.svg

A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced retroflex approximant [ɻ]

Features of the voiced retroflex approximant:

Occurrence

Family	Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Sinitic	Chinese	Mandarin		[ɻ̺͢ɻ̺̞̍˥˩ku̯ɑ͢ŋ˥]	'sunlight'	Apical. As an initial in free variation between fricative and approximant, but never has friction as strong as a true fricative (Chinese "fully muddy"/全浊-class) to trigger a (free or conditional) devoicing or postvoicing into /ʐ̥ʱ/, nor weak enough to become an apical vowel. As a rime it is an apical vowel that is frequently coarticulated with a close near-back unrounded vowel /ɨ̟/ (thus phonetically , but this phonetic representation should be avoided as the tie-bar for coarticulation may be misunderstood as a sliding into an erhua rhotic vowel, a phonemically distinct syllable in Chinese), but it can be prolonged indefinitely and never truly developed into an /ɨ̟/. Both the consonant and the vowel may gain some friction especially when prolonged to force a more "distinct/clear" effect in teaching or when swearing, and thus it may be inaccurately transcribed as fricative Template:IPAblink both as initial and as rime (when precision is necessary, a true fricative in Wu Chinese may be transcribed as [ʐ̥ʱ], as that is how it is pronounced in the first syllable). See Standard Chinese phonology. The character 日 (sun), when pronounced with an overall strengthened friction (on both z and ɿ), may likely be understood as a profanity,Template:Which thus pronouncing as an approximant is important; but the two do not form a minimal pair, because the profanity can also be pronounced with little friction (though in some other dialects they further evolved to form a minimal pair).
Nungish	Derung		Tvrung	[tə˧˩ɻuŋ˥˧]	'Derung'
Germanic	English	Some American dialects	red		'red'	Labialized (pronounced with lips rounded). See Pronunciation of English /r/
		Some Hiberno-English dialects
		Some West Country English
Arnhem	Enindhilyagwa				'fire'
Germanic	FaroeseTemplate:Sfnp				'heard'	Allophone of .Template:Sfnp Sometimes voiceless Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfnp See Faroese phonology
Hellenic	Greek	Cretan (Sfakia and Mylopotamos variations) regionTemplate:Sfnp	Template:Transliteration		'milk'	Intervocalic allophone of before . Recessive. See Modern Greek phonology
Eskimo-Aleut	Inuktitut	Nattilingmiutut			'she replies'
Dravidian	Malayalam		/āḻam		'depth'
Mapudungun	MapucheTemplate:Sfnp				'flower'	Possible realization of ; may be Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink instead.Template:Sfnp
Romance	Portuguese	Many Centro-Sul registers			'letters'	Allophone of rhotic consonants (and sometimes ) in the syllable coda. Mainly found in rural São Paulo, Paraná, south of Minas Gerais and surrounding areas, with the more common and prestigious realization in metropolitan areas being Template:IPAblink and/or rhotic vowel instead. As with Template:IPAblink, it appeared as a mutation of . See Portuguese phonology.
		Caipira			'rainstorm'
		Conservative Piracicabano			'thankful' (m.)
Dravidian	TamilTemplate:Sfnp		/Tamiḻ	{{errorTemplate:Main other|Audio file "Ta-தமிழ்.ogg" not found}}Template:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler	'Tamil'	See Tamil phonology. May be merged with Template:IPAblink for some modern speakers.
Pama-Nyungan	Western Desert	Pitjantjatjara dialect			'Uluru'
Isolate	Yaghan				'cave'

See also

• Alveolar approximant
• Retroflex consonant
• R-colored vowel
• Index of phonetics articles

External links

• Template:Phoible