Alveolar tap

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Alveolar tap

The alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
al sound, used in some spoken language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet

International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
that represents dental

Dental consonant

In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages....
, alveolar

Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....
, and postalveolar

Postalveolar consonant

Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate ....
flaps

Flap consonant

In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another....
is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA

X-SAMPA

The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London....
symbol is 4.

terms tap and flap may be used interchangeably.

Peter Ladefoged

Peter Ladefoged

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Encyclopedia

The alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonant

Consonant

Language

International Phonetic Alphabet

Dental consonant

In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages....
, alveolar

Alveolar consonant

Postalveolar consonant

Flap consonant

X-SAMPA

The Extended Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet is a variant of SAMPA developed in 1995 by John C. Wells, professor of phonetics at the University of London....
symbol is 4.

Definition

The terms tap and flap may be used interchangeably.

Peter Ladefoged

Peter Ladefoged

Peter Nielsen Ladefoged was an English-American linguistics and phonetics who traveled the world to document the distinct sounds of endangered languages and pioneered ways to collect and study data....
proposed for a while that it may be useful to distinguish between them. However, his usage has been inconsistent, contradicting itself even between different editions of the same text. The last proposed distinction was that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief plosive, whereas 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." However, later on, he no longer felt this was a useful distinction to make, and preferred to use the word flap in all cases.

For linguists who do make the distinction, the coronal tap is transcribed as a fish-hook "r", , while the flap is transcribed as a small capital "d", , 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.

This sound is often analyzed (and therefore transcribed) by native English speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. For example, the 'Japanese R' in hara, akira, tora, etc. is actually an alveolar tap. In languages where this segment is present but is not a true phoneme, an alveolar tap is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop (/t/ or /d/) or an 'R-sound' i.e. an alveolar trill

Alveolar trill

The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental consonant, alveolar consonant, and postalveolar consonant trill consonant is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r....
or alveolar approximant

Alveolar approximant

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

Features

Features of the alveolar flap/tap:

Its manner of articulation
Manner of articulation

In linguistics , manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact....
is tap or flap
Flap consonant

In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another....
, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator
Manner of articulation

In linguistics , manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, jaw, and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make contact....
briefly strikes the other.
Its place of articulation
Place of articulation

In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact, where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active articulator and a passive articulator ....
is alveolar
Alveolar consonant

Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the Dental alveolus of the superior teeth....
which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge
Alveolar ridge

An alveolar ridge is one of the two jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth....
.
Its phonation
Phonation

Phonation has slightly different meanings depending on the subfield of phonetics. Among some phoneticians, phonation is the process by which the vocal folds produce certain sounds through quasi-periodic vibration....
type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
It is an oral consonant
Oral consonant

An oral consonant is a consonant sound in Speech communication that is made by allowing air to escape from the mouth, as opposed to the nose. To create an intended oral consonant sound, the entire mouth plays a role in modifying the air's passageway....
, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
It is a central consonant
Central consonant

A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue.Examples of central consonants are the voiceless velar plosive , the voiced alveolar fricative and the alveolar nasal ....
, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
The airstream mechanism
Airstream mechanism

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound....
is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lung
Lung

The lung is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart....
s and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis
Glottis

The glottis defined as the combination of the vocal folds and the space in between the folds ....
or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	Meaning	Notes
Albanian Albanian language Albanian is an Indo-European languages spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including the west of the Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia....			'name'
Arabic Arabic language Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....	Egyptian Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic is a Varieties of Arabic of the Arabic language of the Semitic languages branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. It originated in the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt around the capital Cairo....		'head'	Contrasts with emphatic Emphatic consonant Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic languages linguistics to describe one of a series of obstruent consonants which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents.... form. See Arabic phonology Arabic phonology While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in phonology, the Arabic language is more properly described as a varieties of Arabic or Macrolanguage....
Basque Basque language Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France....			'the flower'
Catalan Catalan language Catalan is a Romance languages, the national language and official language of Andorra, and a official language in the Autonomous Communities of Spain of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community and in the city of Alghero in the Italy List of islands in the Mediterranean of Sardinia....			'unnecessary'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen Chechen language The Chechen language is spoken by more than 1.3 million people, mostly in Chechnya and by Chechen people elsewhere....		/	'mountain range'
English English language English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...	GA General American General American is an accent of American English. Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English, several U.S....		'better'	English phonology English phonology English phonology is the study of the phonology of the English language. Like all languages, spoken English has wide variation in its pronunciation both Historical linguistics and Descriptive linguistics from dialect to dialect.... and flapping
	Australian Australian English Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia....			See Australian English phonology Australian English phonology Australian English is a Rhotic and non-rhotic accents variety of English language spoken by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world....
	New Zealand New Zealand English New Zealand English is the form of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century....
	Scouse Scouse File:Mersey.svgScouse is the accent and dialect of English language found in the city of Liverpool, and in some adjoining urban areas of Merseyside, mainly The Wirral, often known as woolyback or posh scouse, due to several differences in speech patterns and pronunciation, but also in the new town areas of Runcorn and Skelmersdale....	free English orthography English orthography is the alphabetic Orthography system used by the English language. English orthography, like other alphabetic orthographies, uses a set of rules that generally governs how speech sounds are represented in writing....	'free'	Rhotic consonant
	Scotland Scottish English Scottish English refers to the Variety of English language spoken in Scotland. It may or may not include Scots language depending on the observer....		'free'	Rhotic consonant
Japanese Japanese language IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....		/??? Hiragana is a Japanese language syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the romanization of Japanese. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each symbol represents one mora .... /kokoro Romanization of Japanese The romanization of Japanese or is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. Japanese is normally written in logogram borrowed from Chinese and syllabary scripts ....	'heart'	May instead be a lateral flap Lateral flap A lateral flap is a family of consonantal sounds, used in some Speech communication languages.There are four attested or claimed lateral flaps in the world's languages:... . See Japanese phonology Japanese phonology This article deals with the phonology of the Japanese language....
Korean Korean language Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....		?? Hangul Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logogram Sino-Korean vocabulary hanja system. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official writing system of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China.... /	'wind'	See Korean phonology Korean phonology This article is a technical description of the phonetics and phonology of Korean language.Korean has many allophones, so it is important here to distinguish morphophonemics from corresponding phonemes and allophones ....
Norwegian Norwegian language Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....			'Norway'	See Norwegian phonology Norwegian phonology The sound system of Norwegian language is similar to that of Swedish language. There is considerable variation among the dialects, but the variant generally taught to foreign students is Standard ?stnorsk ....
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....			'against'	See Portuguese phonology Portuguese phonology The phonology of Portuguese can vary considerably between dialects, in extreme cases leading to difficulties in intelligibility. This article focuses on the pronunciations that are generally regarded as standard....
Spanish Spanish language Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....			'expensive'	See Spanish phonology Spanish phonology This article is about the phonology of the Spanish language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants ....

Alveolar tap

Definition

Features

Occurrence

Bibliography

See also