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Inphonetics, atrill is aconsonantal soundproduced by vibrations between theactive articulator andpassive articulator.Standard Spanish⟨rr⟩ as inperro, for example, is analveolar trill.
A trill is made by the articulator being held in place and the airstream causing it to vibrate. Usually a trill vibrates for 2–3 contacts, but may be up to 5, or even more ifgeminate.[1] However, trills may also be produced with only one contact. While single-contact trills are similar totaps and flaps, a tap or flap differs from a trill in that it is made by a muscular contraction rather than airstream.[2] Individuals withankyloglossia may have issues producing the trill sound.
Trill consonants included in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet:
In addition,
The bilabial trill is uncommon. The coronal trill is most frequentlyalveolar[r͇], butdental andpostalveolar articulations[r̪] and[r̠] also occur. An allegedretroflex trill found inToda has been transcribed[ɽ] (that is, the same as theretroflex flap), but might be less ambiguously written[ɽr], as only the onset is retroflex, with the actual trill being alveolar. The epiglottal trills are identified by the IPA as fricatives, with the trilling assumed to beallophonic. However, analyzing the sounds as trills may be more economical.[3] There are also so-calledstrident vowels which are accompanied by epiglottal trill.
The cells in the IPA chart for thevelar,(upper) pharyngeal, andglottal places of articulation are shaded as impossible. The glottis quite readily vibrates, but this occurs as thephonation of vowels and consonants, not as a consonant of its own. Dorso-palatal and velar vibratory motions of the tongue are occasionally produced, especially during the release of dorsal stops,[4] andingressivevelar trills occur in snoring, but not in normal speech. The upper pharyngeal tract cannot reliably produce a trill, but the epiglottis does, and epiglottal trills are pharyngeal in the broad sense.[5] A partially devoiced uvular or pre-uvular (i.e. between velar and uvular) trill[ʀ̝̊] with some frication occurs as acoda allophone of/ʀ/ in theLimburgish dialects ofMaastricht andWeert.[6][7]
Voiceless trills occur phonemically in e.g.Welsh andIcelandic. (See alsovoiceless alveolar trill,voiceless retroflex trill,voiceless uvular trill.) Mangbetu andNinde have phonemically voiceless bilabial trills.
TheCzech language has two contrastive alveolar trills, one a fricative trill (writtenř in the orthography). In the fricative trill the tongue is raised, so that there is audiblefrication during the trill, sounding a little like a simultaneous[r] and[ʐ] (or[r̥] and[ʂ] when devoiced). A symbol for this sound,[ɼ], has been dropped from the IPA, and it is now generally transcribed as a raisedr,[r̝].
Liangshan Yi ("Cool Mountain" Yi) has two "buzzed" or fricative vowels/u̝/,/i̝/ (writtenṳ, i̤) which may also be trilled,[ʙ̝],[r̝].
A number of languages havetrilled affricates such as[mbʙ] and[dʳ]. TheChapakuran languageWariʼ and theMuran languagePirahã have a very unusual trilled phoneme, avoiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop,[t̪͡ʙ̥].
A nasal trill[r̃] has been described from some dialects of Romanian, and is posited as an intermediate historical step inrhotacism. However, the phonetic variation of the sound is considerable, and it is not clear how frequently it is actually trilled.[8] Some languages contrast /r, r̃/ likeToro-tegu Dogon[9] andInor.
Alinguolabial trill[r̼] (or, more precisely, a labiolingual trill[r]) is not known to be used phonemically but occurs whenblowing a raspberry.[10]
Snoring typically consists of vibration of the uvula and thesoft palate (velum), which may be described as aningressive velic trill.[11][a] Like the uvular trill, the ingressive velic trill does not involve the tongue; it is the velum that passively vibrates in the airstream. TheSpeculative Grammarian has proposed a jocular symbol for the sound (and also the sound used to imitate a pig's snort), a wide O with a double dot (ꙫ), suggesting a pig's snout.[14] TheExtensions to the IPA identifies an egressive fricative pronounced with this same configuration, common with acleft palate, asvelopharyngeal[ʩ], and with accompanying uvular trill as[ʩ𐞪] ([ʩʀ]) or[𝼀] (
).[15]
Lateral trills are also possible and may be pronounced by initiating[ɬ] or[ɮ] with an especially forceful airflow.[clarification needed] There is no symbol for them in the IPA.
Ejective trills are not known from any language although they are easy to produce.[rʼ] may occur asmimesis of a cat's purr.[citation needed]
| Labial | Labio- lingual | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Retroflex | Uvular | Velo- pharyngeal | Epiglottal | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| simple | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative | ||||||||||||||||||
| Affricate | ʡ͜ʜ | ʡ͜ʢ | ||||||||||||||||
| Nasal | ||||||||||||||||||
Even staying within the vocal tract, languages also do not, for example, use whistles or inhalation to form speech sounds, nor is a labiolingual trill (a.k.a. "the raspberry") a speech sound in any language. It is important to understand that even though these various odd sounds are not language sounds, they may still be used in communication.
