Thevoiced alveolar tap orflap is a type ofconsonantal sound, used in some spokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents adental,alveolar, orpostalveolartap or flap is ⟨ɾ⟩.
The termstap andflap are often used interchangeably.Peter Ladefoged proposed the distinction that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, and a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing."[1] That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap ⟨ɾ⟩ and flap ⟨ɽ⟩, the 'retroflex' symbol being used for the one that starts with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge. The distinction is noticeable in the speech of some American English speakers in distinguishing the words "potty" (tap[ɾ]) and "party" (retroflex[ɽ]).
For linguists who do not make the distinction, alveolars and dentals are typically calledtaps and other articulationsflaps. No language contrasts a tap and a flap at the same place of articulation.
The sound is often analyzed and thus interpreted by non-native English-speakers as an'R-sound' in many foreign languages. In languages for which the segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either analveolar stop ([t],[d], or both) or arhotic consonant (like thealveolar trill or thealveolar approximant).
If the alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with ⟨r⟩ although that symbol technically represents the trill.
Thevoiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very briefvoiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative.
Voiced alveolar tap or flap | |||
---|---|---|---|
ɾ | |||
IPA number | 124 | ||
Audio sample | |||
Encoding | |||
Entity(decimal) | ɾ | ||
Unicode(hex) | U+027E | ||
X-SAMPA | 4 | ||
Braille | ![]() ![]() | ||
|
Features of the voiced alveolar tap or flap:
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arabic | Egyptian[2] | رجل | [ɾeɡl] | 'leg' | SeeEgyptian Arabic phonology |
Lebanese | إجر | [ʔəʒəɾ] | 'wages' | ||
Moroccan | رما /rma | [ɾma] | 'he threw' | ||
South Iraqi | أريد | [aɾid] | 'I want' | ||
Aragonese | aragonés | [aɾaɣoˈnes] | 'Aragonese' | Contrasts with/r/. | |
Armenian | Eastern[3] | րոպե | [ɾo.ˈpɛ]ⓘ | 'minute' | Contrasts with/r/ in all positions. |
Assyrian | ܪܝܫܐrìsha | [ɾiʃa] | 'head' | Contrasts with ‘dark’ R. | |
Asturian | hora | [ˈoɾa] | 'hour' | Contrasts with/r/. | |
Basque | begiratu | [beˈɣiɾaˌtu] | 'look' | Contrasts with/r/. SeeBasque phonology | |
Bengali | আবার | [abaɾ] | 'again' | Main realisation of /r/. Corresponds to [r ~ɹ] in others and may occur word-medially and finally against [r]. SeeBengali phonology | |
Catalan[4] | truc | [ˈtɾuk] | 'trick' | Contrasts with/r/. SeeCatalan phonology | |
Danish[5][6] | nordisk | [ˈnoɐ̯ɾisk] | 'Nordic' | Possible realization of intervocalic/d/ between phonetic vowels.[5][6] SeeDanish phonology | |
Dutch | reden | [ˈɾeːdə(n)] | 'reason' | Especially in the region of West Frisia. Realization of /r/ varies widely in Dutch. SeeDutch phonology | |
English | Cockney[7] | better | [ˈbe̞ɾɐ] | 'better' | Intervocalicallophone of/t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~tʰ ~tˢ]. SeeFlapping |
Australian[8] | [ˈbeɾɐ] | Intervocalic allophone of/t/ and/d/. SeeAustralian English phonology,New Zealand English phonology andFlapping | |||
New Zealand[9] | |||||
Dublin[10] | [ˈbɛɾɚ]ⓘ | Intervocalic allophone of/t/ and/d/, present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be[ɹ] instead, unlike New and Mainstream. SeeEnglish phonology andFlapping | |||
North America[11] | |||||
Ulster | |||||
West Country | |||||
Irish | three | [θɾiː] | 'three' | Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ɻ ~ʁ] in other accents. | |
Scottish[12] | Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~r]. | ||||
OlderReceived Pronunciation[13] | Allophone of/ɹ/ | ||||
Scouse[12] | |||||
South African[12] | Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~r] instead | ||||
Esperanto | Esperanto | [espeˈɾanto] | 'one who hopes' | Usually a flap[ɾ], but can be a trilledr. SeeEsperanto phonology | |
Greek[14] | μηρός /mirós | [miˈɾ̠o̞s] | 'thigh' | Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of/r/. SeeModern Greek phonology | |
Hindustani | मेरा/میرا | [meːɾaː] | 'My' | Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. SeeHindi phonology | |
Hungarian | kar | [kɒɾ] | 'arm' | Allophone of /r/ | |
Irish | fear | [fʲaɾˠ] | 'man' | SeeIrish phonology | |
Kinyarwanda | uRwanda | [uɾgwɑː.ndɑ] | 'Rwanda' | ||
Japanese | 心 /こころkokoro | [ko̞ko̞ɾo̞]ⓘ | 'heart' | [15] Varies with[ɺ].[16] SeeJapanese phonology | |
Kazakh | бер/ber | [beɾ]ⓘ | 'give' | SeeKazakh phonology | |
Korean | 여름 /yeoreum | [jʌɾɯm] | 'summer' | Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/ | |
Malay | راتوس /ratus | [ɾä.tos] | 'hundred' | Common realisation of /r/. May be trill [r] or postalveolar approximant [ɹ̠]. SeeMalay phonology | |
Māori | whare | [ɸaɾɛ] | 'house' | Sometimes trilled. | |
Marathi | वारा | [ʋaːɾaː] | 'wind' | ||
Nepali[17] | तारा | [t̪äɾä] | 'star' | Intervocalic allophone of /r/. SeeNepali phonology | |
Norwegian[18] | bare | [ˈbɑ̂ː.ɾə]ⓘ | 'only' | May be realised as a trill[r], approximant[ɹ] or uvular[ʀ~ʁ] depending on dialect. SeeNorwegian phonology | |
Odia | ରାତି/rāti | [ɾäti] | 'night' | ||
Polish | który | [ˈkt̪u.ɾɘ̟] | 'which' | Can also sometimes be an approximant, a fricative, and rarely - a trill. SeePolish phonology | |
Portuguese[19] | prato | [ˈpɾatʊ] | 'dish' | Dental toretroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with/ʁ/, with itsguttural allophones. SeePortuguese phonology | |
Punjabi | Gurmukhi | ਲਾਰਾ | [ˈläːɾäː] | 'false promise' | SeePunjabi phonology. |
Shahmukhi | لارا | ||||
Scottish Gaelic | mòr | [moːɾ] | 'big' | Both the lenited and non-initial broad form ofr. Often transcribed simply as/r/. The initial unlenited broad form is a trill[rˠ], while the slender form is[ɾʲ] ([ð] in some dialects). SeeScottish Gaelic phonology. | |
Spanish[20] | caro | [ˈkaɾo̞]ⓘ | 'expensive' | Contrasts with/r/. SeeSpanish phonology | |
Tagalog | biro | [ˈbiɾɔʔ] | 'joke' | SeeTagalog phonology | |
Tamil | மரம் | [maɾam] | 'tree' | SeeTamil phonology | |
Thai | Some speakers | พระ / phra | [pʰɾäʔ˦˥] | 'monk' | |
Turkish[21] | ara | [ˈɑɾɑ] | 'interval' | Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere.[21] SeeTurkish phonology | |
Uzbek[22] | ёмғир/yomg‘ir/یامغیر | [ʝɒ̜mˈʁ̟ɨɾ̪] | 'rain' | Denti-alveolar.[22] | |
West Coast Bajau[23] | bara' | [ba.ɾaʔ] | 'to tell' | Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position. | |
Wu Chinese | Tongling | 銅陵 | [ɾom.lin] | 'Tongling' | Tones not notated due to complexity of tone sandhi. Equivalent to/d/ in other lects. Also seen in otherXuanzhou Wu varieties |
Italian | Sicilian | Drago/Dragu | [ˈdɾaːɡu] | Dragon | In Sicilian It Is a vibrant singol consonant |
Alveolar nasal tap/flap | |
---|---|
ɾ̃ | |
n̆ | |
IPA number | 124 424 |
Encoding | |
X-SAMPA | 4~ or n_X |
Features of the alveolar nasal tap or flap:
Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
English[24] | Estuary | twenty | [ˈtw̥ɛ̃ɾ̃i]ⓘ | 'twenty' | Allophone of unstressed intervocalic/nt/ for some speakers, especially in rapid or casual speech. SeeEnglish phonology,North American English regional phonology andflapping |
North American[25] | |||||
Guarani[26] | porã | [põˈɾ̃ã] | 'good' | Nasalized allophone of/ɾ/ as a result of nasal harmony. SeeGuarani language § Nasal harmony |
I østlandsk er denne lyden normalt en såkalt tapp
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