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Aretroflex (/ˈrɛtrəflɛks,-roʊ-/ ⓘ) orcacuminal (/kəˈkjuːmɪnəl/ ⓘ)consonant is acoronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between thealveolar ridge and thehard palate. They are sometimes referred to ascerebral consonants—especially inIndology.
TheLatin-derived wordretroflex 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 similarplace of articulation without such extreme curling of the tongue; these may be articulated with the tongue tip (apical) or the tongue blade (laminal). When apical, they have been calledapico-domal consonants.
Retroflex consonants, like othercoronal 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 thetip (apical), with theblade (laminal), or with the underside of the tongue (subapical). The point of contact on the roof of the mouth may be with thealveolar ridge (alveolar), the area behind the alveolar ridge (postalveolar), or thehard palate (palatal). Finally, bothsibilant (fricative oraffricate) and nonsibilant (stop,nasal,lateral,rhotic) 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 thegroovedalveolar 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 andMaddieson[4] 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 additionalsecondary articulation ofpalatalization. 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.
Thevelar bunched approximant found in northern varieties ofDutch and some varieties ofAmerican English is acoustically similar to the retroflex approximant. It is articulated with the body of the tongue bunched up at the velum.
In theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, the symbols for retroflex consonants are typically the same as for thealveolar consonants, but with the addition of aright-facing hook to the bottom of the symbol.
Retroflex consonants are transcribed in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet as follows:
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 theobsolete IPA underdot symbol for an apical post-alveolar articulation: ⟨ṭ,ḍ,ṇ,ṣ,ẓ,ḷ,ɾ̣,ɹ̣⟩, and use ⟨ᶘ,ᶚ⟩ for laminal retroflex, as in Polish and Russian.[11] The latter are also often transcribed with a retraction diacritic, as ⟨s̠⟩. Otherwise they are typically but inaccurately transcribed as if they were palato-alveolar, as ⟨ʃ⟩.
Consonants with more forward articulation, in which the tongue touches thealveolar orpostalveolar region rather than the hard palate, can be indicated with theretracted diacritic (minus sign below). This occurs especially for[s̠ẕ]; other sounds indicated this way, such as ⟨ṉḻḏ⟩, tend to refer toalveolo-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.[12] About half of these possess only retroflexcontinuants, with most of the rest having both stops and continuants.
Retroflex consonants are concentrated in theIndian subcontinent, particularly in theIndo-Aryan andDravidian languages, but are found in other languages of the region as well, such as theMunda languages andBurushaski.
TheNuristani languages of easternAfghanistan also have retroflex consonants. AmongEastern Iranian languages, they are common inPashto,Wakhi, Sanglechi-Ishkashimi, andMunji-Yidgha. They also occur in some other Asian languages such asMandarin Chinese,Javanese andVietnamese.
The other major concentration is in theindigenous languages of Australia and the Western Pacific (notablyNew Caledonia). Here, most languages have retroflex plosives,nasals andapproximants.
Retroflex consonants are relatively rare in theEuropean languages but occur in such languages asSwedish,Norwegian andFaroese inNorthern Europe, someRomance languages ofSouthern Europe (Sardinian,Sicilian, includingCalabrian andSalentino,Venetian, some Italian dialects such asLunigianese inItaly, and someAsturian dialects inSpain), and (sibilants only) severalSlavic languages (Polish,Russian,Serbo-Croatian,Slovak andSorbian). In Swedish and Norwegian, a sequence ofr and a coronal consonant may be replaced by the coronal's retroflex equivalent: the nameMartin is pronounced[ˈmǎʈːɪn] (Swedish) or[ˈmɑ̀ʈːɪn] (Norwegian), andnord ("north") is pronounced[ˈnuːɖ]ⓘ in (Standard) Swedish and[ˈnuːɽ] in many varieties of Norwegian. That is sometimes done for several consonants in a row after anr:Hornstull is pronounced[huːɳʂˈʈɵlː]).
Theretroflex approximant[ɻ] is present in some dialects ofBrazilian Portuguese and it's infree variation with thepostalveolar approximant/ɹ/ in many dialects ofAmerican English, particularly in theMidwestern United States. Polish and Russian possess retroflexsibilants, 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 theSouthwestern United States as inHopi andO'odham, and inAlaska and theYukon Territory as in theAthabaskan languagesGwich’in andHän. In African languages retroflex consonants are also rare but reportedly occur in a fewNilo-Saharan languages, as well as in theBantu languageMakhuwa and some other varieties. In southwest Ethiopia, phonemically distinctive retroflex consonants are found inBench andSheko, two contiguous, but not closely related,Omotic languages.[13]
There are several retroflex consonants that are implied by theInternational Phonetic Association. In theirHandbook, they give the example of[ᶑ], a retroflex implosive, but when they requested an expansion of coverage of theInternational Phonetic Alphabet by Unicode in 2020, they supported the addition superscript variants of not just[ᶑ] but of the retroflex lateral fricatives[ꞎ] and[𝼅], of the retroflex lateral flap[𝼈], and of the retroflex click release[𝼊]. (SeeLatin Extended-F.) The lateral fricatives are explicitly provided for byextIPA.
Most of these sounds are not common, but they all occur. For example, theIwaidja language of northern Australia has aretroflex lateral flap[𝼈] ([ɺ̢]) as well as a retroflex tap[ɽ] and retroflex lateral approximant[ɭ]; and theDravidian languageToda has asubapical retroflex lateral fricative[ꞎ] ([ɭ̊˔]) and aretroflexed trill[ɽr]. TheNgad'a language ofFlores has been reported to have aretroflex implosive[ᶑ]. Subapical retroflex clicks occur inCentral !Kung,[14] and possibly inDamin.[citation needed]
Most languages with retroflex sounds typically have only one retroflex sound with a givenmanner of articulation[citation needed]. An exception, however, is theToda language, with a two-way distinction among retroflex sibilants between apical (post)alveolar and subapical palatal.
