Voiced alveolar tap
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
that represents a dental,
alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...
, or
postalveolar Postalveolar or post-alveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but no ...
tap or flap is . The terms ''tap'' and ''flap'' 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." That distinction between the alveolar tap and flap can be written in the IPA with tap and flap , 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 ) and "party" (retroflex ). For linguists who make the distinction, the coronal flap (as in Spanish ) is transcribed with , and the tap (as in ''dd'' in American English ''ladder'') is transcribed with a non-IPA symbol (not to be confused with the IPA symbol , which stands for the open back rounded vowel). Otherwise, alveolars and dentals are typically called ''taps'' and other articulations ''flaps''. 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 an alveolar stop (, , or both) or a
rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthography, orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek alphabet, Greek letter Rho (letter), rho, including R, , in the Latin ...
(like the alveolar trill or the alveolar approximant). If the alveolar flap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may be transcribed with although that symbol technically represents the trill. The voiced alveolar tapped fricative reported from some languages is actually a very brief
voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative The voiced alveolar fricatives are consonantal sounds. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a sibilant or non-sibilant fricative is being described. * The symbol for the alveolar sibilant ...
.


Voiced alveolar tap and flap


Features

Features of the voiced alveolar tap or flap: * Its
manner of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is ''stricture,'' that is, h ...
is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact. * Its place of articulation is dental or
alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * ...
, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth or at the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.


Occurrence


Alveolar nasal tap and flap


Features

Features of the alveolar nasal tap or flap: * Its
manner of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is ''stricture,'' that is, h ...
is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that the tongue makes very brief contact.


Occurrence


See also

* Flapping *
Index of phonetics articles A * Acoustic phonetics * Active articulator * Affricate * Airstream mechanism * Alexander John Ellis * Alexander Melville Bell * Alfred C. Gimson * Allophone * Alveolar approximant () * Alveolar click () * Alveolar consonant * Alveolar ejecti ...


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{LetterR Alveolar consonants Tap and flap consonants Pulmonic consonants Oral consonants Central consonants