Voiceless alveolar and postalveolar approximants

The voiceless alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar voiceless approximants is ɹ̥, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\_0.

Voiceless alveolar approximant
ɹ̥
θ̠˕
IPA Number151 402A
Encoding
X-SAMPAr\_0

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar approximant:

  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • 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.

Occurrence

Alveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
English Various

dialects

cream [ˈkʰɹ̥iːm] ˈcreamˈ Laminal; allophone of /ɹ/ after aspirated consonants, as other approximants /l, w, j/ do. May be a post-alveolar fricative ɹ̠̊˔ instead. See English phonology.
Faroese[1] okkurt [ˈɔʰkʊɹ̥t] 'around' Allophone of /r/.[1] See Faroese phonology

Postalveolar

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Bengali[2] আবার [ˈäbäɹ̠̊] 'again' Apical; possible allophone of /ɹ/ in the syllable coda.[3] See Bengali phonology

Notes

  1. Árnason (2011), p. 115.
  2. Khan (2010), p. 224.
  3. Khan (2010), pp. 223–224.

References

  • Árnason, Kristján (2011), The Phonology of Icelandic and Faroese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922931-4
  • Khan, Sameer ud Dowla (2010), "Bengali (Bangladeshi Standard)" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 221–225, doi:10.1017/S0025100310000071
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