| Above: | Retroflex |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌̢ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌̣ |
A retroflex, apico-domal, or cacuminal consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants—especially in Indology.
The Latin-derived word retroflex means "bent back"; some retroflex consonants are pronounced with the tongue fully curled back so that articulation involves the underside of the tongue tip (subapical). These sounds are sometimes described as "true" retroflex consonants. However, retroflexes are commonly taken to include other consonants having a similar place of articulation without such extreme curling of the tongue; these may be articulated with the tongue tip (apical) or the tongue blade (laminal).
Retroflex consonants, like other coronal consonants, come in several varieties, depending on the shape of the tongue. The tongue may be either flat or concave, or even with the tip curled back. The point of contact on the tongue may be with the tip, with the blade, or with the underside of the tongue . The point of contact on the roof of the mouth may be with the alveolar ridge, the area behind the alveolar ridge, or the hard palate . Finally, both sibilant (or) and nonsibilant consonants can have a retroflex articulation.
The greatest variety of combinations occurs with sibilants, because for them, small changes in tongue shape and position cause significant changes in the resulting sound. Retroflex sounds generally have a duller, lower-pitched sound than other alveolar or postalveolar consonants, especially the sibilants. The farther back the point of contact with the roof of the mouth, the more concave is the shape of the tongue, and the duller (lower pitched) is the sound, with subapical consonants being the most extreme.
The main combinations normally observed are:
Subapical sounds are sometimes called "true retroflex" because of the curled-back shape of the tongue, and the other sounds sometimes go by other names. For example, Ladefoged and Maddieson prefer to call the laminal post-alveolar sounds "flat post-alveolar".
Retroflex sounds must be distinguished from other consonants made in the same parts of the mouth:
The first three types of sounds above have a convex tongue shape, which gives them an additional secondary articulation of palatalization. The last type has a groove running down the center line of the tongue, which gives it a strong hissing quality. The retroflex sounds, however, have a flat or concave shape, with no associated palatalization, and no groove running down the tongue. The term "retroflex", in fact, literally means "bent back" (concave), although consonants with a flat tongue shape are commonly considered retroflex as well.
The velar bunched approximant found in northern varieties of Dutch and some varieties of American English is acoustically similar to the retroflex approximant. It is articulated with the body of the tongue bunched up at the velum.
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.
Retroflex consonants are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as follows:
| IPA | Description | Example | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | |||
| pronounced as /ɳ̊/ | voiceless retroflex nasal | Iaai[4] | '''hnr'''athu | pronounced as /['''ɳ̊'''aθu]/ | 'cold' | |
| pronounced as /ɳ/ | voiced retroflex nasal | Punjabi | ਗਾਣਾ / گاݨا | pronounced as /[ˈgaː'''ɳ'''aˑ]/ | song | |
| Telugu | పణము | pronounced as /[pa'''ɳ'''amu]/ | stake; bet | |||
| pronounced as /ʈ/ | voiceless retroflex plosive | Hindi / Urdu | टांग / ٹانگ | pronounced as /['''ʈ'''aːŋg]/ | leg | |
| Telugu | టెక్కెము | pronounced as /['''ʈ'''ekːkemu]/ | banner; pennant | |||
| pronounced as /ɖ/ | voiced retroflex plosive | Somali | Bandhig | pronounced as /[banː'''ɖ'''ig]/ | presentation | |
| Hindi / Urdu | डब्बा / ڈبا | pronounced as /['''ɖ'''əbːaː]/ | box | |||
| Telugu | డగ్గర | pronounced as /['''ɖ'''agːgara]/ | phantom; apparition | |||
| pronounced as /ʈ͡ʂ/ | voiceless retroflex affricate | Torwali | [[Arabic alphabet|'''ڇ'''ووو]]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[ʈ͡ʂuwu]/ | to sew | |
| pronounced as /ɖ͡ʐ/ | voiced retroflex affricate | Yi | Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: [[Yi script|ꎐ]] / Sichuan Yi; Nuosu: '''rr'''y | pronounced as /[ɖ͡ʐɪ˧]/ | tooth | |
| pronounced as /ʂ/ | voiceless retroflex fricative | Mandarin | 上海 (Shànghǎi) | pronounced as /['''ʂ'''ɑ̂ŋ.xàɪ]/ | Shanghai | |
| Sanskrit | भाषा | pronounced as /[bʱɑ́ː'''ʂ'''ɑː]/ | language | |||
| Telugu | మిష | pronounced as /[mi'''ʂ'''a]/ | pretext | |||
| pronounced as /ʐ/ | voiced retroflex fricative | Russian | жаба | pronounced as /[ˈ'''ʐ'''abə]/ | toad | |
| Polish | żaba | pronounced as /[ˈ'''ʐ'''aba]/ | frog | |||
| pronounced as /ɻ̊˔/ | voiceless retroflex non-sibilant fricative | Ormuri[5] | ||||
| pronounced as /ɻ˔/ | voiced retroflex non-sibilant fricative | English (Eastern Cape) | red | pronounced as /[ɻ˔ed]/ | 'red' | |
| pronounced as /ɻ/ | voiced retroflex approximant | Tamil | தமிழ் | pronounced as /[t̪ɐmɨ'''ɻ''']/ | Tamil | |
| pronounced as /ɭ/ | voiced retroflex lateral approximant | Tamil | ஆள் | pronounced as /[ɑː'''ɭ''']/ | person | |
| Telugu | నెళవు | pronounced as /[ne'''ɭ'''awu]/ | familiarity; acquaintance | |||
| Swedish | Karlstad | pronounced as /[ˈkʰɑː'''ɭ'''.sta]/ | Karlstad | |||
| pronounced as /ɽ̊/ | voiceless retroflex flap | Dhivehi | ||||
| pronounced as /ɽ/ | voiced retroflex flap | Hausa | shaara | pronounced as /[ʃáː'''ɽ'''a]/ | sweeping | |
| Hindi / Urdu | कीचड़ / کیچڑ | pronounced as /[kiːt͡ʃə'''ɽ''']/ | mud | |||
| pronounced as /ɽ̊͜r̊/ | voiceless retroflex trill | Dhivehi | ||||
| pronounced as /ɽ͡r/ | voiced retroflex trill | Wintu[6] | boloy nor-toror | [{{IPA|boloj noɽr toɽoɽr}}] | '(ridge on a trail from Hayfork to Hyampom)' | |
| pronounced as /̊/ (pronounced as /ɭ̆̊/) | voiceless retroflex lateral flap | Wahgi | ||||
| (pronounced as /ɭ̆/) | voiced retroflex lateral flap | Pashto | ړوند | pronounced as /[''''''und]/ | blind | |
| Marathi | बाळ | pronounced as /[ˈbɑː'''''']/ | baby | |||
| pronounced as /ꞎ/ (pronounced as /ɭ̊˔/) | voiceless retroflex lateral fricative | Toda | pü·ł̣ | pronounced as /[pʏːꞎ]/ | summer | |
| (pronounced as /ɭ˔/) | voiced retroflex lateral fricative | Ao[7] | ||||
| pronounced as /ʈ͡ꞎ/ (pronounced as /ʈ͡ɭ̊˔/) | voiceless retroflex lateral affricate | Bhadarwahi | ट्ळा | pronounced as /[ʈ͡ꞎaː]/ | three | |
| pronounced as /ɖ͡/ (pronounced as /ɖ͡ɭ˔/) | voiced retroflex lateral affricate | Bhadarwahi | हैड्ळ | pronounced as /[haiɖ͡ɭ˔]/ | turmeric | |
| pronounced as /ʈʼ/ | retroflex ejective stop | Yokuts | ṭʼa∙yʼ | pronounced as /[ʈʼaːjˀ]/ | 'down feather' | |
| pronounced as /ʈ͡ʂʼ/ | retroflex ejective affricate | Gwichʼin | etrʼuu | pronounced as /[ɛʈ͡ʂʼu:]/ | arctic tern | |
| (pronounced as /ᶑ̥/) | voiceless retroflex implosive | Ngiti | ||||
| pronounced as /ᶑ/ | voiced retroflex implosive | Ngadha | modhe | pronounced as /[ˈmoᶑe]/ | good | |
| pronounced as /k͡ q͡ ɡ͡ ɢ͡ ŋ͡ ɴ͡/ | retroflex clicks | Central !Kung | ɡ‼ú | pronounced as /[ᶢú]/ | water | |
Some linguists restrict these symbols for consonants with subapical palatal articulation, in which the tongue is curled back and contacts the hard palate, and use the alveolar symbols with the obsolete IPA underdot symbol for an apical post-alveolar articulation: (IPA|ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ṣ, ẓ, ḷ, ɾ̣, ɹ̣), and use (IPA|ᶘ, ᶚ) for laminal retroflex, as in Polish and Russian.[8] The latter are also often transcribed with a retraction diacritic, as (IPA|s̠). Otherwise they are typically but inaccurately transcribed as if they were palato-alveolar, as (IPA|ʃ).
Consonants with more forward articulation, in which the tongue touches the alveolar or postalveolar region rather than the hard palate, can be indicated with the retracted diacritic (minus sign below). This occurs especially for pronounced as /[s̠ ẕ]/; other sounds indicated this way, such as (IPA|ṉ ḻ ḏ), tend to refer to alveolo-palatal rather than retroflex consonants.
Although data are not precise, about 20 percent of the world's languages contain retroflex consonants of one sort or another.[9] About half of these possess only retroflex continuants, with most of the rest having both stops and continuants.
Retroflex consonants are concentrated in the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, but are found in other languages of the region as well, such as the Munda languages and Burushaski.
The Nuristani languages of eastern Afghanistan also have retroflex consonants. Among Eastern Iranian languages, they are common in Pashto, Wakhi, Sanglechi-Ishkashimi, and Munji-Yidgha. They also occur in some other Asian languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Javanese and Vietnamese.
The other major concentration is in the indigenous languages of Australia and the Western Pacific (notably New Caledonia). Here, most languages have retroflex plosives, nasals and approximants.
Retroflex consonants are relatively rare in the European languages but occur in such languages as Swedish and Norwegian in Northern Europe, some Romance languages of Southern Europe (Sardinian, Sicilian, including Calabrian and Salentino, some Italian dialects such as Lunigianese in Italy, and some Asturian dialects in Spain), and (sibilants only) Faroese and several Slavic languages (Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak and Sorbian). In Swedish and Norwegian, a sequence of r and a coronal consonant may be replaced by the coronal's retroflex equivalent: the name Martin is pronounced in Swedish pronounced as /ˈmǎʈːɪn/ (Swedish) or in Norwegian pronounced as /ˈmɑ̀ʈːɪn/ (Norwegian), and nord ("north") is pronounced in Swedish pronounced as /ˈnuːɖ/ in (Standard) Swedish and in Norwegian pronounced as /ˈnuːɽ/ in many varieties of Norwegian. That is sometimes done for several consonants in a row after an r: Hornstull is pronounced in Swedish pronounced as /huːɳʂˈʈɵlː/).
The retroflex approximant pronounced as /[ɻ]/ is in free variation with the postalveolar approximant pronounced as //ɹ// in many dialects of American English, particularly in the Midwestern United States. 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 the Southwestern United States as in Hopi and O'odham, and in Alaska and the Yukon Territory as in the Athabaskan languages Gwich’in and Hän. In African languages retroflex consonants are also rare but reportedly occur in a few Nilo-Saharan languages, as well as in the Bantu language Makhuwa and some other varieties. In southwest Ethiopia, phonemically distinctive retroflex consonants are found in Bench and Sheko, two contiguous, but not closely related, Omotic languages.[10]
There are several retroflex consonants that are implied by the International Phonetic Association. In their Handbook, they give the example of pronounced as /[ᶑ]/, a retroflex implosive, but when they requested an expansion of coverage of the International Phonetic Alphabet by Unicode in 2020, they supported the addition superscript variants of not just pronounced as /[ᶑ]/ but of the retroflex lateral fricatives pronounced as /[ꞎ]/ and pronounced as /[]/, of the retroflex lateral flap pronounced as /[]/, and of the retroflex click release pronounced as /[]/. (See Latin Extended-F.) The lateral fricatives are explicitly provided for by extIPA.
Most of these sounds are not common, but they all occur. For example, the Iwaidja language of northern Australia has a retroflex lateral flap pronounced as /[]/ (pronounced as /[ɺ̢]/) as well as a retroflex tap pronounced as /[ɽ]/ and retroflex lateral approximant pronounced as /[ɭ]/; and the Dravidian language Toda has a subapical retroflex lateral fricative pronounced as /[ꞎ]/ (pronounced as /[ɭ̊˔]/) and a retroflexed trill pronounced as /[ɽr]/. The Ngad'a language of Flores has been reported to have a retroflex implosive pronounced as /[ᶑ]/. Subapical retroflex clicks occur in Central !Kung,[11] and possibly in Damin.
Most languages with retroflex sounds typically have only one retroflex sound with a given manner of articulation. An exception, however, is the Toda language, with a two-way distinction among retroflex sibilants between apical (post)alveolar and subapical palatal.
pronounced as /navigation/