Voiced retroflex plosive

A voiced retroflex plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ ɖ ⟩. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a d, the letter that is used for the corresponding alveolar consonant. Many South Asian languages, such as Hindi and Urdu, have a two-way contrast between plain and murmured (breathy voice) [ ɖ ].

Voiced retroflex plosive
ɖ
IPA number	106
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɖ
Unicode (hex)	U+0256
X-SAMPA	d`
Braille
Image

Features

Features of a voiced retroflex stop:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, laminal (flat).
• 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
Asturian	Astierna dialect	ḷḷingua	[ɖiŋɡwä]	'tongue'	Corresponds to /ʎ/ in other dialects. See Che Vaqueira
Balochi		ڈل‎/dèl	[ɖɪl]	'female donkey'
Bengali		ডাকাত	[ɖakat̪]	'robber'	Apical postalveolar. See Bengali phonology
English	Indian dialects	dine	[ɖaɪn]	'to eat'	Corresponds to /d/ in other dialects. See English phonology
	General American	herd	[hɚɖ]	'herd'	Allophone of /d/ before /ɹ/ or /ɚ/
Fon		ɖù	[ɖù]	'to celebrate'
Gujarati		હાડ	[ɦaɖ]	'bone'	Subapical. See Gujarati phonology
Hindustani		डालना/ڈالنا	[ɖaːlnaː]	'to put'	Apical postalveolar. See Hindustani phonology
Javanese		ꦣꦲꦂ/dhahar/ڎاهار‎	[ɖahaɽ]	'to eat'
Kannada		ಅಡಸು	[ɐɖɐsu]	'to join'
Maba		kodrok/كٛڔٛك	[kɔɖɔk]	'false'
Malayalam		പാണ്ഡവർ	[ˈpaːɳɖaʋɐr]	'Pandavas'
Marathi		हाड	[haːɖ]	'bone'	Subapical. See Marathi phonology
Nepali		डर	[ɖʌr]	'fear'	Apical postalveolar. See Nepali phonology
Nihali		[biɖum]		'one'
Norwegian		varde	[ˈʋɑɖːə]	'beacon'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ଡଙ୍ଗା/ḍaṅgā	[ɖɔŋga]	'boat'	Apical postalveolar.
Pashto		ډﻙ	[ɖak]	'full'
Punjabi		ਡੱਡੂ	[ɖəɖːu]	'frog'
Sardinian		cherveddu		'brain'
Sicilian		coḍḍu	[kɔɖːu]	'neck'
Sindhi		واڍو/vāḍho/वाढो	[ʋɑɖʱo]	'carpenter'
Sinhala		බඩ	[baɖə]	'stomach'
Somali		dhul	[ɖul]	'earth, land, ground'	See Somali phonology
Swedish		nord		'north'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		வண்டி	[ʋəɳɖi]	'cart'	Subapical; allophone of /ʈ/. See Tamil phonology
Telugu		కడ్డి	[kɐɖːi]	'rod'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. Aspirated form articulated as breathy consonant.
Torwali		ڈىغو	[ɖiɣu]	'late afternoon'	Realised as [ɽ] between vowels.

See also

• African D
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Mazumdar (2000:57)
2. Khatiwada (2009:374)
3. Ladefoged (2005:141)
4. Tiwari (2004:?)
5. Keane (2004:111)
6. Lunsford (2001:11–16)