Voiced alveolar approximant

Voiced alveolar approximant
ɹ
IPA number	151
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɹ
Unicode (hex)	U+0279
X-SAMPA	r\
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A voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English-speakers as the "r" sound in "rose" (though see below). The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents it is ⟨ɹ⟩, the lowercase Latin letter r rotated 180 degrees.

A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ].

Features of a voiced alveolar approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Albanian	unknown	gjelbër	[ˈɟʑɛlbəɹ]	'green'
Armenian	Classical	սուրճ	[suɹtʃ]	'coffee'
Assamese		ৰঙা (rônga)	[ɹɔŋa]	'red'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	Alqosh dialect	ܪܒ	[ɹɑbɑ]	'many'	Corresponds to /ɾ/ in most other Assyrian dialects.
	Tyari dialect
Bengali[1]		আবার	[abaɹ]	'again'	Phonetic realisation of /r/, especially in some Eastern Dialects and sometimes in conjunct before consonants. Corresponds to [r ~ ɾ] in others. See Bengali phonology
Burmese[2][3]		ပရိဘောဂ	[pəɹḭbɔ́ɡa̰]	'furniture'	Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English.
Chukchi[citation needed]		ңирэк	[ŋiɹek]	'two'
Dutch	Central Netherlandic	door	[doːɹ]	'through'	Allophone of /r/ in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology.
	Western Netherlandic
	Leiden	rat	[ɹat]	'rat'	Corresponds to /r/ in other dialects.
German	Moselle Franconian (Siegerland[4] and Westerwald[5] dialects)	Rebe	[ˈɹeːbə]	'vine'	Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ], a uvular trill [ʀ] or an alveolar trill [r]. See Standard German phonology.
	Silesian
	Upper Lusatian
Greek[6]		μέρα/méra	[ˈmɛɹɐ]	'day'	Allophone of /ɾ/ in rapid or casual speech and between vowels. See Modern Greek phonology.
Persian		فارسی	[fɒːɹˈsiː]	'Persian'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /l/. See Persian phonology.
Portuguese	Multiple Brazilian dialects, mostly inland Centro-Sul[7]	amor	[aˈmoɹˠ]	'love'	Allophone of /ɾ ~ ʁ/ in the syllable coda. Velarized, may also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or a rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology.
Spanish	Andalusian[8]	doscientos	[do̞(ɹ)ˈθje̞n̪t̪o̞s]	'two hundred'	Allophone of /s/ before [θ]. See Spanish phonology.
	Belizean	invierno	[imˈbjeɹno]	'winter'	Possible realization of /r/ in the syllable coda due to English influence.
	Caribbean Colombian
	Puerto Rican
	Costa Rican[9]	carro	[ˈkaɹo]	'car'	Allophone of /r/, and of /ɾ/ before /l/. See Costa Rican Spanish.
Swedish	Central Standard[10]	område	[ˌʔɔmː˦˥˩ˈɹʊɞ̯˩˥˧d̪ɛ̥]ⓘ	'domain'	Allophone of /r/, especially word-finally[11] and post-vocalically.[citation needed] See Swedish phonology.
Tagalog		parang	[paɹaŋ]	'like-'	Allophone of the more usual and traditional flap or trill [ɾ ~ r] and is sometimes thus pronounced by some younger speakers due to exposure to mainstream English.
Turkish	Marmara Region	artık	[aɹtɯk]	'excess, surplus'	Occurs as an allophone of [ɾ] in syllable coda, in free variation with post-alveolar [ɹ̠]. See Turkish phonology.
Vietnamese	Saigon[12]	ra	[ɹa]	'go out'	In free variation with [ɾ], [r] and [ʐ]. See Vietnamese phonology.
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[13]	rdɨ	[ɹd̪ɨ]	'pass'	Allophone of /ɾ/ before consonants.

Voiced laminal alveolar approximant
z̞
ð̠˕

Some languages have a voiced (post)alveolar approximant that is acoustically distinct from a typical [ɹ], which has variously been described as being '[z]-like,'[14] 'non-rhotic',[15] or 'non-sulcalized'.[16] Some authors have reported the distinction as one of articulation, with the formerly mentioned sound being classified as laminal, while a typical [ɹ] is distinguished as apical.[17] The distinction may also be made as a phonological classing, between a 'rhotic approximant' and a 'frictionless continuant approximant'.[18] The International Phonetic Alphabet has no symbol to represent this sound, but possible transcriptions with diacritics include ⟨z̞⟩ (a lowered [z]) and ⟨ð̠˕⟩ (a lowered and retracted [ð]), both of which have been used in literature. Several symbols have been proposed to represent this sound, but none have become widely accepted.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Danish	Standard[19][20][21]	ved	[ve̝ð̠˕ˠ]	'at'	Velarized; allophone of /d/ in the syllable coda.[19][20][21] For a minority of speakers, it may be a non-sibilant fricative instead.[21] See Danish phonology.
Extreme Southern Italian[16]	Sicilian	raro	[z̞aːɾo]	'rare'	Corresponds to /rr/ in standard Italian, as well as word-initial /r/. Can be alveolar [z̞] or postalveolar [ʒ̞], depending on the speaker, both of which may also be geminated. Described as 'non-sulcalized sonorants', articulated without contact, though may retain some degree of frication; may be closer to a non-sibilant fricative, depending on the speaker.[16]
	Calabro
	Salentino
Icelandic		veggfóður	[ˈvɛkfo̞ð̠˕ɵ̞r̥]ⓘ	'a wallpaper'	Usually apical.[22] In free variation with a weak fricative [ð̠];[23] variably removed from the front teeth, up to (nearly) spot on [ð̞].[24] See Icelandic phonology.
Miyakoan	Irabu[14]	[z̞zä]		'father'	Realized as [z̞z] when word initial, geminate [z̞ː] when presyllabic, variable when medial, and plain [z̞] when word final. Phonemically transcribed as /ž/ or /žž/. Devoiced to [s̞] following a voiceless bilabial plosive /p/.[14] See Miyakoan language § Phonology

Voiced postalveolar approximant
ɹ̠
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A schematic mid-sagittal section of an articulation of a voiced postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠].

The most common sound represented by the letter r in English is the voiced postalveolar approximant, pronounced further back than a typical [ɹ] and transcribed more precisely in IPA as ⟨ɹ̠⟩, but ⟨ɹ⟩ is often used for convenience in its place. For further ease of typesetting, English phonemic transcriptions might use the symbol ⟨r⟩ even though this symbol represents the alveolar trill in phonetic transcription.

The bunched or molar r sounds remarkably similar to the postalveolar approximant and can be described as a voiced labial pre-velar approximant with tongue-tip retraction.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Australian	red	[ˈɹ̠ʷed]	'red'	Often labialized. May also be a labialized retroflex approximant. For convenience it is often transcribed ⟨r⟩. See Australian English phonology, English phonology, Rhoticity in English and Pronunciation of English /r/.
	Received Pronunciation		[ˈɹ̠ʷɛd]ⓘ
	Most American dialects[25]
		car	[ˈkʰɑɹ̠]	'car'	Not labialized.
Faroese[26]		rørar	[ˈɹ̠øːɹ̠ɐɹ̠]	'a groin'	Ranges from post-alveolar to retroflex.[27] More often realised as a fricative.[28] See Faroese phonology.
Igbo[29]		rí	[ɹ̠í]	'eat'
Malay		راتوسcode: msa promoted to code: ms /ratuscode: msa promoted to code: ms	[ɹ̠ä.tos]	'hundred'	More commonly trill [r] or flap [ɾ]. See Malay phonology
Maltese	Some dialects[30]	malajr	[mɐˈlɐjɹ̠]	'quickly'	Corresponds to [ɾ ~ r] in other dialects.[30]
Shipibo[31]		roro	[ˈd̠ɹ̠o̽ɾ̠o̽]	'to break into pieces'	Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of /r/.[31]

As an allophone of other rhotic sounds, [ɹ] occurs in Edo, Fula, Murrinh-patha, and Palauan.[32]

• Index of phonetics articles

• List of languages with [ɹ] on PHOIBLE