Flap consonant

{{Manner_of_articulation}} In [[phonetics]], a '''flap''' or '''tap''' is a type of [[consonant]]al sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. ==Contrast with stops and trills== The main difference between a flap and a [[stop consonant]] is that in a flap, there is no buildup of air pressure behind the [[place of articulation]], and consequently no [[release (phonetics)|release]] burst. Otherwise a flap is similar to a brief stop. Flaps also contrast with [[Trill consonant|trills]], where the airstream causes the articulator to vibrate. Trills may be realized as a single contact, like a flap, but are variable, whereas a flap is limited to a single contact. ==Tap vs. flap== Many [[linguists]] use the terms ''tap'' and ''flap'' indiscriminately. [[Peter Ladefoged]] proposed for a while that it might be useful to distinguish between them. However, his usage was inconsistent, contradicting itself even between different editions of the same text. One proposed version of the distinction was that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief [[Stop consonant|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." Later, however, he no longer felt this to be a useful distinction, and preferred the term ''flap'' in all cases. For linguists that do make the distinction, the [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] tap is transcribed as a fish-hook ar, {{IPA|[ɾ]}}, while the flap is transcribed as a small capital dee, {{IPA|[ᴅ]}}, which is not recognized by the IPA. Otherwise alveolars are typically called ''taps'', and other [[place of articulation|articulations]] ''flaps''. No language is known to contrast a tap and a flap at the same place of articulation. ==IPA symbols== The flap and tap consonants identified by the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] are: {|border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="border:1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;" |- style="background: gray; color: white; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;" ! rowspan="2" | IPA ! rowspan="2" | Description ! colspan="4" | Example |- style="background: gray; color: white; font-weight: bold; text-align: center" | Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning |- | style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;" | {{IPA|ɾ}} | [[alveolar tap]] | [[North American English]] | la'''tt'''er | {{IPA|/læɾɚ/}} | "latter" |- | style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;" | {{IPA|ɺ}} | [[alveolar lateral flap]] | [[Japanese language|Japanese]] | ラーメン | {{IPA|/ɺaːmeɴ/}} | "ramen" |- | style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;" | {{IPA|ɽ}} | [[retroflex flap]] | [[Warlpiri language|Warlpiri]] | '''d'''upa (?) | {{IPA|/ɽupa/}} | "windbreak" |- | style="font-size: 24px; text-align: center;" | [[Image:Labiodental flap (Gentium).svg|15px]] | [[labiodental flap]] | [[Karang language|Karang]] | |{{IPA|/'''v̛'''ara/}} | "animal" |} The IPA recommends that for other flaps, a homorganic consonant, such as a stop or trill, should be used with a breve diacritic: :Tap or Flaps: where no independent symbol for a tap is provided, the breve diacritic should be used, ''e.g.'' {{IPA|[ʀ̆]}} or {{IPA|[n̆]}}. ===Alveolar flaps=== {{main|Alveolar flap}} [[Spanish language|Spanish]] features a good illustration of an alveolar flap, contrasting it with a [[trill consonant|trill]]: ''pe'''r'''o'' {{IPA|/peɾo/}} "but" vs. ''pe'''rr'''o'' {{IPA|/pero/}} "dog". Among the [[Germanic languages]], this [[allophone]] occurs in American and Australian English and in Northern [[Low German language|Low Saxon]]. In American and Australian English it tends to be an allophone of intervocalic /t/ (as in "bu'''tt'''er," "la'''t'''er," "fa'''tt'''est" and "to'''t'''al"). In a number of Low Saxon dialects it occurs as an allophone of intervocalic /d/ or /t/; e.g. ''bä'''d'''en'' /beeden/ → {{IPA|[ˈbeːɾn]}} ‘to pray’, ‘to request’, ''gah to Be'''dd'''e!'' /gaa tou bede/ → {{IPA|[ˌɡɑːtoʊˈbeɾe]}} ‘go to bed!’, ''Wa'''t'''er'' /vaater/ → {{IPA|[ˈvɑːɾɜ]}} ‘water’, ''Va'''dd'''er'' /fater/ → {{IPA|[ˈfaɾɜ]}} ‘father’. (In some dialects this has resulted in reanalysis and a shift to /r/; thus ''bären'' {{IPA|[ˈbeːrn]}}, ''to Berre'' {{IPA|[toʊˈbere]}}, ''Warer'' {{IPA|[ˈvɑːrɜ]}}, ''Varrer'' {{IPA|[ˈfarɜ]}}.) Occurrence varies; in some Low Saxon dialects it affects both /t/ and /d/, while in others it affects only /d/. Other languages with this are [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[korean language|Korean]], and [[Austronesian languages]] with /r/. ===Retroflex flaps=== Most [[Indic language|Indic]] and [[Dravidian languages]] have retroflex flaps. In [[Hindi]] there are three, a simple retroflex flap as in {{IPA|[bɐɽɑː]}} ''big,'' a [[breathy voice|murmured]] retroflex flap as in {{IPA|[koɽʱiː]}} ''leper,'' and a retroflex [[nasalization|nasal]] flap in the Hindicized pronunciation of [[Sanskrit]] {{IPA|[mɐɽ̃i]}} ''ruby.'' Some of these may be [[allophone|allophonic]]. A retroflex flap is also common in [[Norwegian dialects#Retroflex "R"|Norwegian dialects]] and some [[Swedish dialects]]. ===Lateral flaps=== Lateral flaps may be more common than much of the literature would lead one to believe. Many of the languages of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific that don't distinguish [r] from [l] may have a lateral flap, but this is generally missed by European linguists, who often aren't familiar with the sound. However, it is also possible that many of these languages do not have a lateral-central contrast at all, so that even a consistently neutral articulation may be perceived as sometimes lateral {{IPA|[ɺ]}} or {{IPA|[l]}}, sometimes central {{IPA|[ɾ]}}. This has been suggested to be the case for [[Japanese language|Japanese]], for example. The [[Iwaidja language]] of Australia has both alveolar and [[retroflex lateral flap]]s. These contrast with [[lateral approximant]]s at the same positions, as well as a retroflex tap {{IPA|[ɽ]}}, [[alveolar tap]] {{IPA|[ɾ]}}, and [[retroflex approximant]] {{IPA|[ɻ]}}. However, the flapped, or tapped, laterals in Iwaidja are distinct from 'lateral flaps' as represented by the corresponding IPA symbols (see below). These phonemes consist of a flap component followed by a lateral component, whereas In Iwaidja the opposite is the case. For this reason, current IPA transcriptions of these sounds by linguists working on the language consist of an alveolar lateral followed by a superscript alveolar tap and a retroflex lateral followed by a superscript retroflex tap. A [[velar lateral flap]] may exist as an allophone in a few languages of New Guinea.^{{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}} The retroflex lateral flap does not have an officially recognized symbol in the IPA. However, an ''ad hoc'' symbol based on the alveolar lateral flap may occasionally be seen: [[Image:Lateral flaps.png]] Such derived symbols are becoming more frequent now that font-editing software is widely accessible. Note that besides not being sanctioned by the IPA, there is no [[Unicode]] value for it. However, the retroflex lateral flap may be written in Unicode-compliant fashion as a digraph of the alveolar lateral flap {{IPA|[ɺ]}} with the right-tail diacritic, {{IPA|[ɺ̢]}}. The palatal and velar lateral flaps may be represented with a short diacritic over the letter for the homorganic approximant, although the diacritic would need to appear under the palatal due to its ascender: {{IPA|[ʎ̯, ʟ̆]}}. ===Non-coronal flaps=== The only common non-[[coronal consonant|coronal]] flap is the [[labiodental flap]], found throughout central Africa in languages such as [[Margi language|Margi]]. In 2005, the IPA adopted a right-hook v, :[[Image:Labiodental flap (Gentium).svg|30px]] for this sound. (Supported by some fonts: {{IPA|[ⱱ]}}.) Previously, it had been transcribed with the use of the breve diacritic, {{IPA|[v̆]}}, or other ''ad hoc'' symbols. Other flaps are much less common. They include a [[bilabial flap]] in [[Banda languages|Banda]], which may be an [[allophone]] of the labiodental flap, and a [[velar lateral flap]] as an allophone in [[Kanite language|Kanite]] and [[Melpa language|Melpa]]. These are often transcribed with the breve diacritic, as {{IPA|[w̆, ʟ̆]}}. Note here that, like a velar [[trill consonant|trill]], a central velar flap or tap is not possible because the tongue and [[soft palate]] cannot move together easily enough to produce a sound. If other flaps are found, the breve diacritic could be used to represent them, but would more properly be combined with the symbol for the corresponding voiced plosive. A [[palatal consonant|palatal]] or [[uvular consonant|uvular]] flap, which unlike a velar flap is believed to be articulatorily possible, could be represented this way (by {{IPA|*[ɟ̆, ɢ̆~ʀ̆]}}). ==External links== *[[List of phonetics topics]] *[http://journals.dartmouth.edu/webobjbin/WebObjects/Journals.woa/1/xmlpage/1/article/262?htmlAlways=yes A Crosslinguistic Lexicon of the Labial Flap] {{IPA navigation}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Flap Consonant}}