Voiced dental and alveolar taps and flaps

A voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental, alveolar, or postalveolar tap or flap is ⟨ɾ⟩.

The terms tap and flap are often used interchangeably. Peter Ladefoged proposed the distinction that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, and a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing." That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap could be written in non-standard IPA with the tap as ⟨ɾ⟩ and the flap as ⟨ɽ⟩, the retroflex letter being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge,^{[citation needed]} though it could be written less ambiguously with the Americanist letter ⟨ᴅ⟩ (or IPA ⟨d̮⟩) for the tap and standard IPA ⟨ɾ⟩ for the flap. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap) and "party" (flap).^{[citation needed]}

For linguists who do not make the distinction, alveolars and dentals are typically called taps and other articulations flaps. No language contrasts a tap and a flap at the same place of articulation.

As a phoneme, the sound is analyzed as an rhotic consonant. In languages for which the segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop ([t], [d], or both) or a rhotic consonant.

If an alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with ⟨r⟩ in broad transcription, despite that symbol technically representing a trill.

A voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative.

Voiced alveolar tap and flap

Voiced alveolar tap or flap
ɾ
IPA number	124
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɾ
Unicode (hex)	U+027E
X-SAMPA	4
Braille
Image

Voiced postalveolar flap
ɾ̠

Features

Features of a voiced alveolar tap or flap:

• Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
• Its place of articulation is dental or alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth or at the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
• 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 sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian	Standard	Shqipëri	[ʃc͡ɕipəˈɾi]	'Albania'	Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Arabic	Egyptian	رجل	[ˈɾeɡɫ̩]	'leg'	See Egyptian Arabic phonology.
	Lebanese	إجر	[ˈʔəʒəɾ]	'wages'
	Moroccan	رما / rma	[ɾma]	'he threw'
	South Iraqi	أريد	[ˈaɾiːd]	'I want'
Aragonese		aragonés	[äɾäɣ̞o̞ˈne̞s]	'Aragonese'	Contrasts with /r/.
Armenian	Eastern	րոպե		'minute'	Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Assyrian		ܪܫܐ / rìsha	[ɾiʃa]	'head'
Asturian		hora	[ˈo̞ɾä]	'hour'	Contrasts with /r/.
Azerbaijani		qara / قارا	[ɡɑˈɾɑ]	'black'
Basque		begiratu	[be̞ˈɣ̞iɾäˌt̪u]	'look'	Contrasts with /r/. See Basque phonology.
Bengali		ত্রিশ	[t̪ɾiʃ]	'dear'	Mostly pronounced [ɹ]. But may occur some word-medially and finally against [ɾ]. See Bengali phonology.
		গাড়ি	[ˈɡɐɾ̠iˑ]	'car'	Apical postalveolar flaps; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Bengali phonology.
Catalan		truc	[ˈtɾuk]	'trick'	Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology.
Danish		nordisk	[ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk]	'Nordic'	Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ between phonetic vowels. See Danish phonology.
Dutch		reden	[ˈɾeːdə(n)]	'reason'	Especially in the region of West Frisia. Realization of /r/ varies widely in Dutch. See Dutch phonology.
English	Cockney	better	[ˈbe̞ɾɐ]	'better'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ tʰ ~ tˢ]. See Flapping.
	Australian		[ˈbeɾɐ]		Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/. See Australian English phonology, New Zealand English phonology and Flapping.
	New Zealand
	Dublin				Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/, present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be [ɹ] instead, unlike New and Mainstream. See English phonology and Flapping.
	North America
	Ulster
	West Country
	Irish	three	[θɾ̊iː]	'three'	Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents.
	Scottish				Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r].
	Older Received Pronunciation				Allophone of /ɹ/.
	Scouse
	South African				Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead.
Esperanto		Esperanto	[espeˈɾanto]	'one who hopes'	Usually a flap [ɾ], but can be a trilled r, depending on speaker. See Esperanto phonology.
Finnish		rotta	[ˈɾo̞t̪ːɑ]	'rat'	Occurs in Häme (Tampere) dialect, contrasts with r in standard Finnish. See Finnish phonology.
Greek		μηρός / mirós	[miˈɾ̠o̞s̠]	'thigh'	Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology.
Gokana		bele	[beːɾ̠eː]	'we'	Apical postalveolar. Allophone of /l/, medially between vowels within the morpheme, and finally in the morpheme before a following vowel in the same word. It can be a postalveolar trill or simply [l] instead.
Hindustani		मेरा/میرا	[ˈmeːɾäː]	'my'	Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. See Hindustani phonology.
		बड़ा/بڑا		'big'	Apical postalveolar flaps; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Hindustani phonology.
Hungarian		kar	[ˈkɒɾ]	'arm'	Allophone of /r/. See Hungarian phonology.
Irish		fear	[fʲaɾˠ]	'man'	See Irish phonology.
Italian	Standard	era	[ˈɛːɾä]	'era'	Intervocalic realization of /r/.
	Sicilian	drago	[ˈdɾaːɡu]	'dragon'
Kinyarwanda		u Rwanda	[u‿ɾgwɑːⁿdɑ]	'Rwanda'
Japanese		心 /こころ kokoro		'heart'	Varies with [ɺ]. See Japanese phonology.
Kazakh		бер / ber		'give'	In free variation with trilled /r/. See Kazakh phonology.
Korean		여름 / yeoreum	[jʌ̹̀ɾɯ́m]	'summer'	Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/. See Korean phonology.
Kyrgyz		кырк / kyrk		'forty'	See Kyrgyz phonology.
Malay		راتوس / ratus	[ɾä.tos]	'hundred'	Common realization of /r/. May be a trilled [r] or postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠]. See Malay phonology.
Māori		whare	[ˈɸaɾɛ]	'house'	Sometimes trilled.
Marathi		वारा	[ʋaːɾaː]	'wind'
Nepali		तारा	[t̪äɾä]	'star'	Intervocalic allophone of /r/. See Nepali phonology.
		भाड़ा	[bʱäɾ̠ä]	'rent'	Apical postalveolar flaps; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/. See Nepali phonology.
Norwegian		bare		'only'	May be realised as a trill [r], approximant [ɹ] or uvular [ʀ~ʁ] depending on dialect. See Norwegian phonology.
Odia		ରାତି / rāti	[ɾäti]	'night'
		ଗାଡ଼ି	[ɡäɾ̠iː]	'car'	Apical postalveolar flaps; postvocalic allophone of /ɖ, ɖʱ/.
Polish		który	[ˈkt̪uɾɘ̟]	'which'	Common realization of /r/. See Polish phonology.
Portuguese		prato	[ˈpɾatʊ]	'dish'	Dental to retroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with /ʁ/, with its guttural allophones. See Portuguese phonology.
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਲਾਰਾ	[ˈläːɾäː]	'false promise'	See Punjabi phonology.
	Shahmukhi	لارا
Scottish Gaelic		mòr	[moːɾ]	'big'	Both the lenited and non-initial broad form of r. Often transcribed simply as /r/. The initial unlenited broad form is a trill [rˠ], while the slender form is [ɾʲ] ([ð] in some dialects). See Scottish Gaelic phonology.
Shipibo		roro	[ˈɾ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽]	'to break'	Apical postalveolar; possible realization of /r/.
Spanish		caro		'expensive'	Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology.
Tagalog		biro	[ˈbiɾɔʔ]	'joke'	See Tagalog phonology.
Tamil		மரம் / maram		'tree'	See Tamil phonology.
Thai	Some speakers	พระ / phrá	[pʰɾäʔ˦˥]	'monk'
Turkish		ara		'interval'	Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere. See Turkish phonology.
Turkmen		gara	[ɢɑˈɾɑ]	'black'
Uzbek		ёмғир / yomg‘ir / یامغیر	[ʝɒ̽mˈʁ̟ɨ̞ɾ̪]	'rain'	Denti-alveolar. See Uzbek phonology.
West Coast Bajau		bara'	[ba.ɾaʔ]	'to tell'	Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position.
Wu Chinese	Xuanzhou Wu	銅陵	[ɾom.lin]	'Tongling'	Found in various Xuanzhou localities, with that of Tongling provided. Tones not notated due to complexity of tone sandhi. Equivalent to /d/ in other lects.

Alveolar nasal tap and flap

Alveolar nasal tap/flap
ɾ̃
n̆
IPA number	124 424
Encoding
X-SAMPA	4~ or n_X

Features

Features of an alveolar nasal tap or flap:

• Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.
• 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 a nasal consonant, which means air is exclusively allowed to escape through the nose for nasal stops; otherwise, in addition to through the mouth.
• 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 sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Estuary	twenty		'twenty'	Allophone of unstressed intervocalic /nt/ for some speakers, especially in rapid or casual speech. See English phonology, North American English regional phonology and flapping
	North American
Guarani		porã	[põˈɾ̃ã]	'good'	Nasalized allophone of /ɾ/ as a result of nasal harmony. See Guarani language § Nasal harmony

See also

• Flapping
• Index of phonetics articles