| Ipa Symbol: | ɻ |
| Ipa Number: | 152 |
| Decimal: | 635 |
| Xsampa: | r\` |
| Kirshenbaum: | r |
| Braille: | 256 |
| Braille2: | number |
| Sound: | Retroflex approximant.ogg |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x027B.svg |
| Above: | Labialised voiced retroflex approximant |
| Ipa Symbol: | ɻʷ |
| Sound: | Retroflex Approximant2.oga |
The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|ɻ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is a turned lowercase letter r with a rightward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter.
The velar bunched approximant found in some varieties of Dutch and American English sounds similar to the retroflex approximant but it has a very different articulation.
Features of the voiced retroflex approximant:
| Family | Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sinitic | [[Chinese characters|日光]] [[pinyin|'''rì'''guāng]] | [ɻ̺͢ɻ̺̞̍˥˩ku̯ɑ͢ŋ˥] | 'sunlight' | Apical.[1] As an initial in free variation between fricative and approximant, but never has friction as strong as a true fricative (Chinese "fully muddy"/全浊-class) to trigger a (free or conditional) devoicing or postvoicing into /ʐ̥ʱ/, nor weak enough to become an apical vowel. As a rime it's an apical vowel that is frequently coarticulated with a close near-back unrounded vowel /ɨ̟/ (thus phonetically pronounced as /[ɻ̺͢ɨ̟͡ɻ̺̞̍˥˩ku̯ɑ͢ŋ˥]/, but this phonetic representation should be avoided as the tie-bar for coarticulation may be misunderstood as a sliding into an erhua rhotic vowel, a phonemically distinct syllable in Chinese), but it can be prolonged indefinitely and never truly developed into an /ɨ̟/. Both the consonant and the vowel may gain some friction especially when prolonged to force a more "distinct/clear" effect in teaching or when swearing, and thus it may be inaccurately transcribed as fricative pronounced as /link/ both as initial and as rime (when precision is necessary, a true fricative in Wu Chinese may be transcribed as [ʐ̥ʱ], as that's how it's pronounced in the first syllable). See Standard Chinese phonology.The character 日 (sun), when pronounced with an overall strengthened friction (on both z and ɿ), may likely be understood as a profanity, thus pronouncing as an approximant is important; but the two do not form a minimal pair, because the profanity can also be pronounced with little friction (though in some other dialects they further evolved to form a minimal pair). | |||
| Nungish | Tvrung | [tə˧˩ɻuŋ˥˧] | 'Derung' | ||||
| Germanic | Some American dialects | pronounced as /[ɻ(ʷ)ɛd]/ | 'red' | Labialized (pronounced with lips rounded). See Pronunciation of English /r/ | |||
| Some Hiberno-English dialects | |||||||
| Some West Country English | |||||||
| Arnhem | angwu'''r'''a | pronounced as /[aŋwuɻa]/ | 'fire' | ||||
| Germanic | Faroese: [[Faroese orthography|hoy'''r'''di]] | pronounced as /[hɔiɻʈɛ]/ | 'heard' | Allophone of pronounced as //ɹ//. Sometimes voiceless pronounced as /link/. See Faroese phonology | |||
| Hellenic | Cretan (Sfakia and Mylopotamos variations) region | Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|γά'''λ'''α]] | pronounced as /[ˈɣaɻa]/ | 'milk' | Intervocalic allophone of pronounced as //l// before pronounced as //a, o, u//. Recessive. See Modern Greek phonology | ||
| Eskimo-Aleut | Inuktitut: kiu'''ř'''uq | pronounced as //kiuɻuq// | 'she replies' | ||||
| Dravidian | Malayalam: [[Malayalam alphabet|ആഴം]] | pronounced as /[aːɻɐm]/ | 'depth' | ||||
| Mapudungun | Mapudungun; Mapuche: [[Mapudungun alphabet|'''r'''ayen]] | pronounced as /[ɻɜˈjën]/ | 'flower' | Possible realization of pronounced as //ʐ//; may be pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ instead. | |||
| Romance | Many Centro-Sul registers | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|ca'''r'''tas]] | pronounced as /[ˈkaɻtə̥̆s]/ | 'letters' | Allophone of rhotic consonants (and sometimes pronounced as //l//) in the syllable coda. Mainly[2] found in rural São Paulo, Paraná, south of Minas Gerais and surrounding areas, with the more common and prestigious realization in metropolitan areas being pronounced as /link/ and/or rhotic vowel instead. As with pronounced as /link/, it appeared as a mutation of pronounced as /[ɾ]/.[3] [4] [5] See Portuguese phonology. | ||
| Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|tempora'''l''']] | pronounced as /[tẽɪ̯̃pʊˈɾaɻ]/ | 'rainstorm' | |||||
| Conservative Piracicabano | Portuguese: [[Portuguese orthography|g'''r'''ato]] | pronounced as /[ˈgɻatʊ̥]/ | 'thankful' (m.) | ||||
| Dravidian | Tamil: [[Tamil script|தமிழ்]] | 'Tamil' | See Tamil phonology. May be merged with pronounced as /link/ for some modern speakers. | ||||
| Pama-Nyungan | Ulu'''ṟ'''u | pronounced as /[ʊlʊɻʊ]/ | 'Uluru' | ||||
| Isolate | wá'''rh'''o | pronounced as /[ˈwaɻo]/ | 'cave' | ||||
pronounced as /navigation/