The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of sound, used in some spoken . The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental consonant, alveolar, or postalveolar 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 do not make the distinction, 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 rhotic consonant 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 (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.
Voiced alveolar tap and flap
Features
- Its manner of articulation 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 consonant or alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth or at the alveolar ridge. It is most often Apical consonant, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
Occurrence
| See Egyptian Arabic phonology | |||||
| Lebanese Arabic | rtl=yes | 'wages' | |||
| Moroccan Arabic | رما / rma | ɾma | 'he threw' | ||
| South Iraqi | rtl=yes | 'I want' | |||
| Contrasts with . | |||||
| Contrasts with in all positions. | |||||
| Assyrian | ܪܝܫܐ rìsha | 'head' | Contrasts with ‘dark’ R. | ||
| Contrasts with . | |||||
| Contrasts with . See Basque phonology | |||||
| Main realisation of /r/. Corresponds to in others and may occur word-medially and finally against r. See Bengali phonology | |||||
| Contrasts with . See Catalan phonology | |||||
| Possible realization of intervocalic between phonetic vowels. See Danish phonology | |||||
| Especially in the region of West Frisia. Realization of /r/ varies widely in Dutch. See Dutch phonology | |||||
| Intervocalic allophone of . In free variation with . See Flapping | |||||
| Intervocalic allophone of and . See Australian English phonology, New Zealand English phonology and Flapping | |||||
| New Zealand | |||||
| Intervocalic allophone of and , present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be instead, unlike New and Mainstream. See English phonology and Flapping | |||||
| North America | |||||
| Hiberno-English | |||||
| West Country | |||||
| Conservative accents. Corresponds to in other accents. | |||||
| Most speakers. Others use . | |||||
| Allophone of | |||||
| Scouse | |||||
| Broad speakers. Can be instead | |||||
| Usually a flap , but can be a trilled . See Esperanto phonology | |||||
| Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of . See Modern Greek phonology | |||||
| Allophone of /r/ in intervocalic position. See Hindi phonology | |||||
| Allophone of /r/ | |||||
| See Irish phonology | |||||
| Varies with . See Japanese phonology | |||||
| See Kazakh phonology | |||||
| Allophone of /l/ between vowels or between a vowel and an /h/ | |||||
| Malay language | Jawi alphabet / Latin alphabet | 'hundred' | Common realisation of /r/. May be trill or postalveolar approximant . See Malay phonology | ||
| Sometimes trilled. | |||||
| ता रा | Intervocalic allophone of /r/. See Nepali phonology | ||||
| May be realised as a trill , approximant or uvular depending on dialect. See Norwegian phonology | |||||
| Polish language | któ ry | 'which' | Can also sometimes be an approximant, a fricative, and rarely - a trill. See Polish phonology | ||
| Dental to Retroflex flap allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts only intervocalically with , with its Guttural R allophones. See Portuguese phonology | |||||
| Punjabi language | Gurmukhi | ਲਾ ਰਾ | 'false promise' | See Punjabi phonology. | |
| Shahmukhi | |||||
| Both the lenited and non-initial broad form of r. Often transcribed simply as . The initial unlenited broad form is a trill , while the slender form is ( in some dialects). See Scottish Gaelic phonology. | |||||
| Contrasts with . See Spanish phonology | |||||
| See Tagalog phonology | |||||
| Tamil language | ம ரம் | 'tree' | See Tamil phonology | ||
| Thai language | Some speakers | พ ระ / ph ra | 'monk' | ||
| Intervocalically; may not make full contact elsewhere. See Turkish phonology | |||||
| Denti-alveolar. | |||||
| Voiced dental flap in intervocalic position. | |||||
| Tones not notated due to complexity of tone sandhi. Equivalent to in other lects. Also seen in other Xuanzhou Wu varieties | |||||
Alveolar nasal tap and flap
Features
- Its manner of articulation 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
| Allophone of unstressed intervocalic for some speakers, especially in rapid or casual speech. See English phonology, North American English regional phonology and flapping |
| North American |
| Nasalized allophone of as a result of nasal harmony. See Guarani language § Nasal harmony |
See also
- Flapping
- Index of phonetics articles
Notes
External links
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