Retroflex consonant
In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some
languages. The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the
postalveolar to
palatal region of the mouth.
The consonants commonly called "
postalveolar", or more precisely "palato-alveolar", as well as the "
alveolo-palatals", are also pronounced in the postalveolar region. However, they have an additional secondary articulation of palatalization.
Encyclopedia
In phonetics,
retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some
languages. The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the
postalveolar to
palatal region of the mouth.
The consonants commonly called "
postalveolar", or more precisely "palato-alveolar", as well as the "
alveolo-palatals", are also pronounced in the postalveolar region. However, they have an additional secondary articulation of palatalization. The consonants commonly called "
palatal" are also pronounced in the palatal region, but are more precisely "dorso-palatal", meaning that they are dorsal , rather than coronal like retroflex consonants.
In other words,
retroflex consonants are coronal consonants articulated behind the alveolar ridge, which do not have the secondary articulation of palatalization.
Retroflex consonants, like other coronals, may involve several shapes of the tongue. The tongue may be flat, with the
blade of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth, as in Polish
cz, sz, z and Mandarin
ch, zh, sh, r. This is termed
laminal . Or they may be pronounced with the tip of the tongue, as in
Hindi. This is termed
apical . Finally, the tongue may be curled back so that the underside touches the alveolar or pre-palatal region, as in many of the Dravidian languages. This is termed
sub-apical .
Retroflex consonants are common in the Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages; and can also be found in languages such as
Mandarin Chinese,
Javanese,
Vietnamese,
Swedish,
Norwegian and some languages of Southern Italy and Sardinia.
There are several retroflex consonants not yet recognized by the IPA. For example, the Iwaidja language of northwestern Australia has a
retroflex lateral flap as well as a retroflex tap and retroflex lateral approximant ; and the Dravidian language
Toda has a
sub-apical retroflex lateral fricative and a retroflexed trill . Because of the regularity of deriving retroflex symbols from their alveolar counterparts, people will occasionally use a font editor to create the appropriate symbols for such sounds. The Ngad'a language of
Flores has been reported to have a retroflex implosive , but in this case the expected symbol is coincidentally supported by Unicode.
Retroflex consonants identified by the
International Phonetic Alphabet are:
Note: In the
International Phonetic Alphabet, the symbols for retroflex consonants are typically the same as for the
alveolar consonants, 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.See also
Reference
- Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson, The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell Publishers, 1996. ISBN 0-631-19815-6
