Voiced dental and alveolar taps and flaps

The 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."[1] That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap [ɾ] and flap [ɽ], the 'retroflex' symbol being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap [ɾ]) and "party" (flap [ɽ]).

For linguists who make the distinction, the coronal tap (as in Spanish pero) is transcribed as [ɾ], and the flap (as in American English ladder) is transcribed as [ᴅ], the latter of which is not recognized by the IPA. Otherwise, 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.

The sound is often analyzed and thus interpreted by non-native English-speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. 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 (like the alveolar trill or the alveolar approximant).

If the alveolar tap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed /r/ although that symbol technically represents the trill.

The 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
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɾ
Unicode (hex)	U+027E
X-SAMPA	4
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Audio sample
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Features

Features of the 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 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
Arabic	Egyptian[2]	رجل‎	[ɾeɡl]	'leg'	Contrasts with emphatic form. See Egyptian Arabic phonology
	Lebanese	إجر‎	[ʔəʒəɾ]	'wages'
	Moroccan
Armenian	Eastern[3]	րոպե	[ɾopɛ]	'minute'	Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Basque		begiratu	[beˈɣiɾaˌtu]	'look'	Contrasts with /r/. See Basque phonology
Bengali		আবার	[abaɾ]	'again'	Corresponds to [r ~ ɹ] in others and may occur word-medially and finally against [r]. See Bengali phonology
Catalan[4]		mira	[ˈmiɾə]	'look'	Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology
Danish[5][6]		nordisk	[ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk]	'Nordic'	Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ between phonetic vowels.[5][6] See Danish phonology
English	Cockney[7]	better	[ˈbe̞ɾə]	'better'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ tʰ ~ tˢ]. See Flapping
	Australian[8]		[ˈbeɾə]		Intervocalic allophone of /t/, and also /d/ for some Australians. Used more often in Australia than in New Zealand. See Australian English phonology and Flapping
	New Zealand[9]		[ˈbeɾɘ]
	Dublin		[ˈbɛɾɚ]		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[10]
	Ulster
	West Country
	Irish	three	[θɾiː]	'three'	Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents.
	Scottish[11]				Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r].
	Older Received Pronunciation[12]				Allophone of /ɹ/
	Scouse[11]
	South African[11]				Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead
Greek[13]		μηρός / mirós	[miˈɾ̠o̞s]	'thigh'	Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani		मेरा / میرا‎	[meːɾaː]	'My'	Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. See Hindustani phonology.
Japanese		心 /こころ kokoro	[ko̞ko̞ɾo̞]	'heart'	[14] Varies with [ɺ].[15] See Japanese phonology
Korean		여름 / yeoreum	[jʌɾɯm]	'summer'	Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/
Māori		whare	[ɸaɾɛ]	'house'	Sometimes trilled.
Nepali[16]		तारा	[t̪äɾä]	'star'	Intervocalic allophone of /r/. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian[17]		bare	[ˈbɑ̂ː.ɾə]	'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'
Polish		który	[ˈkt̪u.ɾɘ̟]	'which'	Rarely trilled.
Portuguese[18]		prato	[ˈpɾatu]	'dish'	Dental to retroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with /ʁ/, with its guttural allophones. See Portuguese phonology
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.
Spanish[19]		caro	[ˈkaɾo̞]	'expensive'	Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology
Tamil		மரம்	[maɾam]	'tree'	See Tamil phonology
Turkish[20]		ara	[ˈäɾä]	'interval'	Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere.[20] See Turkish phonology
Uzbek[21]		ёмғир/yomg‘ir	[ʝɒ̜mˈʁ̟ɨɾ̪]	'rain'	Denti-alveolar.[21]
West Coast Bajau[22]		bara'	[ba.ɾaʔ]	'to tell'	Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position.

Alveolar nasal tap and flap

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

Features

Features of the 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 allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.

• 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
English[23]	Estuary	twenty	[ˈtw̥ɛ̃ɾ̃i]	'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[24]

See also

• Flapping
• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

1. Valentin-Marquez (2015) harvcoltxt error: no target: CITEREFValentin-Marquez2015 (help)
2. Watson (2002:16)
3. Dum-Tragut (2009:19)
4. Carbonell & Llisterri (1992:53)
5. Grønnum (2005:157)
6. Basbøll (2005:126)
7. Wells (1982:324–325)
8. Cox & Palethorpe (2007:343)
9. Trudgill & Hannah (2002:24)
10. Ogden (2009:114)
11. Ogden (2009:92)
12. Wise (1957:?)
13. Arvaniti (2007:15–18)
14. Labrune (2012), p. 92.
15. Akamatsu (1997), p. 106.
16. Khatiwada, Rajesh (December 2009). "Nepali". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 39 (3): 373–380. doi:10.1017/S0025100309990181. ISSN 1475-3502.
17. Kristoffersen, Gjert (2015). "En innføring i norsk fonologi" [An introduction to Norwegian phonology] (PDF) (in Norwegian) (4 ed.). University of Bergen: 21. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-10-24. Retrieved 2020-07-09. I østlandsk er denne lyden normalt en såkalt tapp Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
18. Cruz-Ferreira (1995:91)
19. Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003:255)
20. Yavuz & Balcı (2011:25)
21. Sjoberg (1963:13)
22. Miller, Mark T. (2007). A Grammar of West Coast Bajau (Ph.D. thesis). University of Texas at Arlington. p. 34. hdl:10106/577.
23. Kwan-Young Oh. "Reanalysis of Flapping on Level Approach". Retrieved 2013-11-24.
24. Tomasz P. Szynalski. "Flap t FAQ". Retrieved 2013-11-24.

References

• Akamatsu, Tsutomu (1997). Japanese Phonetics: Theory and Practice. München: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-095-6.
• Arvaniti, Amalia (2007), "Greek Phonetics: The State of the Art" (PDF), Journal of Greek Linguistics, 8: 97–208, doi:10.1075/jgl.8.08arv, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-11
• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
• Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618
• Cox, Felicity; Palethorpe, Sallyanne (2007), "Australian English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 341–349, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003192
• 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
• Greenberg, Mark L. (2006), A Short Reference Grammar of Standard Slovene (PDF), Kansas: University of Kansas
• Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
• Kleine, Ane (2003), "Standard Yiddish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 261–265, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001385
• Labrune, Laurence (2012), The Phonology of Japanese, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-954583-4
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
• Lass, Roger (1987), "Intradiphthongal Dependencies", in Anderson, John; Durand, Jacques (eds.), Explorations in Dependency Phonology, Dordrecht: Foris Publications Holland, pp. 109–131, ISBN 9067652970
• Mangold, Max (2005) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (6th ed.), Mannheim: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04066-7
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
• Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344
• Ogden, Richard (2009), An Introduction to English Phonetics, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2541-3
• Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
• Šimáčková, Šárka; Podlipský, Václav Jonáš; Chládková, Kateřina (2012), "Czech spoken in Bohemia and Moravia" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42 (2): 225–232, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000102
• Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
• Šuštaršič, Rastislav; Komar, Smiljana; Petek, Bojan (1999), "Slovene", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, pp. 135–139, ISBN 0-521-65236-7
• Trudgill, Peter; Hannah, Jean (2002), International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th ed, p. 24
• Valentin-Marquez, Wilfredo (2008), "Doing Being Boricua: Perceptions of National Identity and the Sociolinguistic Distribution of Liquid Variables in Puerto Rican Spanish", Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 1 (2): 451–454, doi:10.1515/shll-2008-1031, S2CID 147068871
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
• Watson, Kevin (2007), "Liverpool English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37 (3): 351–360, doi:10.1017/S0025100307003180
• Wells, John (1982), Accents of English 2: The British Isles, pp. 324–325, ISBN 978-0-521-28540-7
• Wise, Claude Merton (1957), Introduction to Phonetics, Englewood Cliffs
• Yavuz, Handan; Balcı, Ayla (2011), Turkish Phonology and Morphology (PDF), Eskişehir: Anadolu Üniversitesi, ISBN 978-975-06-0964-0

External links

• List of languages with [ɾ] on PHOIBLE