Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects comprise the Italiano Meridionale-estremo language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento Sicilian ' onMouseout='HidePop("60797")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Salentino">Salentino
The Salentino dialect is the traditional vernacular of the southern Italian provinces of Lecce, Brindisi and part of that of Taranto, known more commonly as the Salento, the extreme southern part of the region of Puglia or the southern "heel" of the Italian peninsula.For socio-political reasons...
and
LunigianeseLunigiana is an historical territory of Italy, which today falls within the provinces of La Spezia and Massa Carrara. Its borders derive from the ancient Roman settlement, later the medieval diocese of Luni, which no longer exists....
, in
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
and
NorwegianNorwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...
(where a sequence of r
plus a coronal consonant may be replaced by the coronal's retroflex equivalent, e.g. the name Martin
would be pronounced . Also, this is sometimes done for several consonants in a row after an r -
HornstullHornstull is an area in western Södermalm, Stockholm. Hornstull is actually the name of where the streets Hornsgatan and Långholmsgatan intersect. Up to the early 19th century it was also a city toll ....
is pronounced ). The
retroflex approximantThe retroflex approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`...
is an
allophoneIn phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds that belong to the same phoneme. A phoneme is an abstract unit of speech sound that can distinguish words: That is, changing a phoneme in a word can produce another word...
of the
alveolar approximantThe alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase letter r rotated 180 degrees; the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\.For ease of...
in many dialects of
American EnglishAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States.English is the most common language in the United States...
, particularly in the
MidwesternThe Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Polish and Russian possess retroflex sibilants, but no stops or liquids at this place of articulation. Retroflex consonants are largely absent from indigenous languages of the Americas with the exception of the extreme south of South America, an area in
Southwestern USThe Southwestern United States is defined as the states that lie west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37, 38, 39, or 40 degree north latitude. A 97.33 longitude degree west could qualify as the separation of the American Southwest from the...
as in
HopiHopi is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, USA, although today some Hopi are monolingual English speakers.The use of the language gradually declined over the course of the 20th century...
and Papago, and in
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and the Yukon Territory as in the
Athabaskan languagesAthabaskan or Athabascan is the name of a large group of closely related indigenous peoples of North America, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family...
Gwichʼin and
HänThe Hän language is a Native American endangered language spoken in only two places: Eagle, Alaska and Dawson City, Yukon. There are only a few fluent speakers left , all of them elderly....
. In African languages retroflex consonants are also very rare, reportedly occurring in a few
Nilo-Saharan languagesThe Nilo-Saharan languages are African languages spoken mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...
. In southwest Ethiopia, phonemically distinctive retroflex consonants are found in
BenchBench is a Northern Omotic language of the "Gimojan" subgroup, spoken by about 174,000 people in the Bench Maji Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region, in southern Ethiopia, around the towns of Mizan Teferi and Shewa Gimira...
and
ShekoSheko is an Omotic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken in the area between Tepi and Mizan Teferi in western Ethiopia, in the Sheko district in the Bench Maji Zone. The 1998 census listed 23,785 speakers, with 13,611 identified as monolinguals...
, two contiguous, but not closely related, Omotic languages.
Retroflex consonants are concentrated in the
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family.SIL International in a 2005 estimate counted a total of 209 varieties, the largest in terms of native speakers being Hindustani , Bengali , Punjabi , Marathi ,...
and the
Dravidian languagesThe Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages, spoken by around 200 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other...
of the
Indian subcontinentThe Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent and other terms, is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate south of the Himalayas, forming a peninsula which extends southward into the Indian Ocean...
, where they occur as an areal feature apparently inherited from
Dravidian-Hypothetical language:Proto-languages are, by definition, hypothetical languages reconstructed by linguists, and hence no proto-language has any historical record. So is the case with Proto-Dravidian...
(they do not exist in Proto-Indo-Iranian). Many retroflex consonants also exist in
Eastern Iranian languagesThe Eastern Iranian languages are a subgroup of the Iranian languages emerging in Middle Iranian times .The Avestan language is often classified as early Eastern Iranian, but this is uncertain....
such as
PashtoPashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...
,
KhotaneseKhotanese is a form of the Sakan language once spoken in the Kingdom of Khotan. The language is preserved in the texts among the Dunhuang manuscripts, written in a script derived from the Brahmi. These texts have been deciphered and edited by Harold Bailey....
and
Pamir languagesThe Pamir languages are a subgroup of the Eastern Iranian languages, spoken by Pamiri people in the Pamir Mountains, primarily along the Panj River and its tributaries. This includes the Badakhshan Province of northeastern Afghanistan and the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province of eastern Tajikistan...
. They are also common in
Nuristani languagesThe Nuristani languages are a third separate group of the Indo-Iranian language family, and they are spoken primarily in eastern Afghanistan.-History:The Nuristani languages were not described in the literature until the 19th century...
. They also occur in some other Asian languages such as Mandarin Chinese,
JavaneseJavanese language is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
and
VietnameseVietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national and official language of Vietnam...
. The other major concentration is in the indigenous languages of Australia and the Western Pacific (notably
New CaledoniaNew Caledonia , is a "sui generis collectivity" of France located in the region of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands...
). Here, most languages have retroflex plosives,
nasalA nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
and
approximantsApproximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and "typical" consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence. Approximants are...
.
There are several retroflex consonants not yet recognized by the IPA. For example, the
Iwaidja languageIwaidja, in phonemic spelling Iwaja, is an Australian language with about 150 speakers in northernmost Australia. Historically from the base of the Cobourg Peninsula, it is now spoken on Croker Island...
of northern Australia has a
retroflex lateral flapThe retroflex lateral flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It has no symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, but an ad hoc symbol may be easily created .-Features:Features of the retroflex flap:...
as well as a retroflex tap and retroflex lateral approximant ; and the
Dravidian languageThe Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 73 languages, spoken by around 200 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other...
TodaToda is a Dravidian language well known for its many fricatives and trills. It is spoken by the Toda people, a population of about one thousand who live in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India.-Vowels:...
has a
sub-apical retroflex lateral fricativeThe voiceless retroflex lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The IPA has no officially recognized symbol for this sound...
and a
retroflexed trillThe retroflex trill has been reported from the Dravidian language Toda, and confirmed with laboratory measurements. Peter Ladefoged transcribes it with the IPA symbol normally associated with the retroflex flap, '...
. Because of the regularity of deriving retroflex symbols from their alveolar counterparts, people will occasionally use a
font editorA font editor is a class of application software specifically designed to create or modify computer font files.
Font editors differ greatly depending if they are designed to edit bitmap fonts or outline fonts. Modern font editors mostly deal with the outline fonts, because bitmap fonts are an...
to create the appropriate symbols for such sounds. (Here they were written with diacritics.) The Ngad'a language of
FloresFlores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population is estimated to be around 1.5 million , and the largest town is Maumere....
has been reported to have a
retroflex implosiveThe voiced retroflex implosive is a type of consonantal sound that has not been confirmed to exist in any language. It has been claimed that Ngad'a, an Austronesian language spoken in Flores, contains such a sound....
, but in this case the expected symbol is coincidentally supported by Unicode. Sub-apical retroflex clicks occur in Central Juu and in
DaminDamin was a ceremonial language register used by the advanced initiated men of the Lardil and the Yangkaal tribes in Aboriginal Australia. Both inhabit islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Lardil on Mornington Island, the largest island of the Wesley Group, and the Yangkaal and Forsyth Islands...
.
Retroflex consonants identified by the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe 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...]
are:
| IPA |
Description |
Example |
| Language |
Orthography |
IPA |
Meaning |
 |
retroflex nasal The retroflex nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is n`...
|
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
|
Vänern |
|
VänernVänern is the largest lake in Sweden and the third largest lake in Europe. It is located in the provinces of Västergötland, Dalsland, and Värmland.- History :...
|
 |
voiceless retroflex plosive The voiceless retroflex plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t`...
|
Hindi |
टापू (ṭāpū) |
|
islandAn island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, .There are two main types of islands:...
|
 |
voiced retroflex plosive The voiced retroflex plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d`. The IPA symbol is a lowercase letter d with a rightward-pointing tail...
|
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
|
nord |
|
north North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
|
 |
voiceless retroflex fricative The voiceless retroflex fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is s`...
|
Mandarin |
上海 (Shànghǎi) |
|
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
|
 |
voiced retroflex fricative The voiced retroflex fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`.Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a...
|
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
PolishPolish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...
|
жаба
żaba |
|
toad
frog |
 |
retroflex approximant The retroflex approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`...
|
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
|
தமிழ் (Tamil) |
|
TamilTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
|
 |
lateral retroflex approximant |
SwedishSwedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...
|
Karlstad |
|
KarlstadKarlstad is a city, the seat of Karlstad Municipality and the capital of Värmland County in Sweden. It has 58,544 inhabitants in 2005 out of a municipal total of 83,500. Karlstad has a University and a Cathedral....
|
 |
retroflex flap The retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`....
|
HausaHausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 24 million people, and as a second language by about 15 million more.-Classification:...
|
shaara |
|
sweeping |
|
retroflex lateral flapThe retroflex lateral flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It has no symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, but an ad hoc symbol may be easily created .-Features:Features of the retroflex flap:...
|
PashtoPashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...
|
ړوند |
|
blind |
|
(voiced) retroflex click The retroflex clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Juu languages of southern Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia...
|
Central Juu |
— |
|
water |
Note: In the
International Phonetic AlphabetThe 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...]
, the symbols for retroflex consonants are typically the same as for the
alveolar consonantAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
s, but with the addition of a right-facing hook to the bottom of the symbol. Some linguists restrict these symbols for the "true" retroflex consonants with sub-apical palatal articulation, and use the alveolar symbols with the obsolete IPA underdot symbol for an apical post-alveolar articulation: . Another solution, more in keeping with the official IPA, would be to use the rhotic diacritic for the apical retroflexes: . Laminal retroflexes, as in Polish and Russian, are often transcribed with a retraction diacritic, as , etc.
Otherwise they are typically but inaccurately transcribed as if they were palato-alveolar, as *, etc.