Dental, alveolar and postalveolar flaps

Alveolar tap
ɾ
IPA Number	124
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɾ
Unicode (hex)	U+027E
X-SAMPA	4
Braille
Image

The alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar flaps is [ɾ].

The terms tap and flap may be used interchangeably. Peter Ladefoged proposed for a while that it may be useful to distinguish between them; however, his usage has been inconsistent, contradicting itself even between different editions of the same text. The last proposed distinction was that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, whereas 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." However, later on, he no longer felt this was a useful distinction to make, and preferred to use the word flap in all cases.

For linguists who do make the distinction, the coronal tap is transcribed as a fish-hook "r", [ɾ], while the flap is transcribed as a small capital "d", [ᴅ], which is not recognized by the IPA. 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.

This sound is often analyzed (and therefore transcribed) by native English speakers as an 'R-sound' in many foreign languages. For example, the 'Japanese R' in hara, akira, tora, etc. is actually an alveolar tap. In languages where this segment is present but not phonemic, it is often an allophone of either an alveolar stop ([t], [d] or both) or a rhotic consonant like the alveolar trill or alveolar approximant.

When the alveolar tap is the only rhotic consonant in the language, it may for simplicity be transcribed /r/, i.e. the symbol technically representing the trill.

Voiced alveolar flap

Features

Features of the alveolar tap:

• Its manner of articulation is 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, alveolar or post-alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth, at the alveolar ridge or behind the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Dental or denti-alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Russian		рьяный	<phonos file="Ru-рьяный.ogg">[ˈɾ̪ʲjän̪ɨ̞j]</phonos>	'zealous'	Apical; palatalized. More common than a dental trill. It contrasts with a post-alveolar trill. See Russian phonology
Uzbek		ёмғир/yomg‘ir	[ʝɒ̜mˈʁ̟ɨɾ̪]	'rain'	Denti-alveolar.

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Afrikaans	Standard	rooi	[ɾoːi̯]	'red'	May be a trill [r] instead. See Afrikaans phonology
Arabic	Egyptian	رجل	[ɾeɡl]	'foot'	Contrasts with emphatic form. See Egyptian Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	րոպե	<phonos file="ɾopɛ.ogg">[ɾopɛ]</phonos>	'minute'	Contrasts with /r/ in all positions.
Catalan		mira	[ˈmiɾə]	'look'	Contrasts with /r/. See Catalan phonology
Danish		Vil du med?	[ʋe̝ ɾu ˈme]	'Are you coming too?'	Possible realization of intervocalic /d/ when it occurs between two unstressed vowels. See Danish phonology
English	Received Pronunciation	better	[ˈbe̞ɾə]	'better'	Intervocalic allophone of /t/ for some speakers. See English phonology and flapping
	Cockney				Intervocalic allophone of /t/. In free variation with [ʔ ~ tʰ ~ tˢ]. See flapping
	Australian		[ˈbeɾə]		Intervocalic allophone of /t/, and also /d/ among few Australians. Used more often in Australia than in New Zealand. See Australian English phonology and flapping
	New Zealand		[ˈbeɾɘ]
	Dublin		<phonos file="En-us-better.ogg">[ˈbɛɾɚ]</phonos>		Intervocalic allophone of /t/ and /d/, present in many dialects. In Local Dublin it can be [ɹ] instead, unlike New and Mainstream. See English phonology and flapping
	North America
	Ulster
	West Country
	Irish	three	[θɾiː]	'three'	Conservative accents. Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɻ ~ ʁ] in other accents.
	Scottish				Most speakers. Others use [ɹ ~ r].
	Older Received Pronunciation				Allophone of /ɹ/
	Scouse
	South African				Broad speakers. Can be [ɹ ~ r] instead
Greek		μηρός/mirós	[miˈɾ̠o̞s]	'thigh'	Somewhat retracted. Most common realization of /r/. See Modern Greek phonology
Hindustani		अर्थ/ارتھ	[əɾt̪ʰ]	'meaning, definition'	See Hindustani phonology
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect	weuren	[ˈβ̞ø̠ːɾən]	'(they) were'	Possible intervocalic allophone of /r/; may be uvular [ʀ̆] instead.
Portuguese		prato	[ˈpɾatu]	'dish'	Dental to retroflex allophones, varying by dialect. Contrasts with /ʁ/, with its guttural allophones and, in all positions, with its archaic form [r]. See Portuguese phonology
Scottish Gaelic		mòr	[moːɾ]	'big'	Both the lenited and non-inital broad form of r. Often transcribed simply as /r/. The initial unlenited broad form is /rˠ/ (also transcribed as /ᵲ/ or /R/) while the slender form is /ɾʲ/ ([ð] in some dialects). See Scottish Gaelic phonology.
Slovene		amarant	[amaˈɾaːn̪t̪]	'amaranth'	Also described as trill [r], and variable between trill [r] and tap [ɾ]. See Slovene phonology
Spanish		caro	[ˈkaɾo̞]	'expensive'	Contrasts with /r/. See Spanish phonology
Turkish		ara	[ˈäɾä]	'interval'	Intervocalic realization of /ɾ/. See Turkish phonology
Yiddish	Standard	בריק	[bɾɪk]	'bridge'	Less commonly a trill [r]; can be uvular [ʀ̆ ~ ʀ] instead. See Yiddish phonology
Zapotec	Tilquiapan	ran	[ɾaŋ]	'to see'

Postalveolar

See also: Retroflex flap

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Gokana		bele	[bēɾ̠ē]	'we'	Allophone of /l/, medially between vowels within the morpheme, and finally in the morpheme before a following vowel in the same word. It can be a post-alveolar trill or simply [l] instead.
Japanese		心/kokoro	<phonos file="ja-kokoro.ogg">[kokoɾo]</phonos>	'heart'	Allophone of /ɺ/. See Japanese phonology

Variable

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
German	Standard	Rübe	[ˈɾÿːbə]	'beet'	Varies between apical dental and apical alveolar; may be a trill instead. See German phonology

Voiced alveolar tapped fricative

Voiced alveolar tapped fricative
ɾ̞
IPA Number	124 430

A tapped fricative is in effect a very brief fricative, with the tongue making the gesture for a tapped stop but not making full contact. This can be indicated in the IPA with the lowering diacritic to show full occlusion did not occur. Flapped fricatives are theoretically possible but are not attested.

Features

Features of the voiced alveolar tapped fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is tapped fricative, which means the tongue makes a brief obstruction sufficient to create frication.
• Its place of articulation is apical alveolar, which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Reported from Turkish in a single source. In Tacana per UPSID.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Aragonese	Pyrenean	aire	[ˈäi̯ɾ̞e̞]	'air'	Common realization of /ɾ/.
Spanish		aire	[ˈäi̯ɾ̞e̞]	'air'	Possible realization of /ɾ/. See Spanish phonology
Turkish		rüya	[ˈɾ̞ÿjä]	'dream'	Word-initial allophone of /ɾ/. See Turkish phonology

Alveolar nasal flap

Alveolar nasal flap
ɾ̃
n̆
IPA Number	124 424
Encoding
X-SAMPA	4~

Features

Features of the alveolar nasal flap:

• Its manner of articulation is 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 alveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is a nasal consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the nose, either exclusively (nasal stops) or in addition to through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Estuary	twenty	<phonos file="En-us-twenty.ogg">[ˈtw̥ɛɾ̃i]</phonos>	'twenty'	Allophone of unstressed intervocallic /nt/ for some speakers. See English phonology, North American English regional phonology and flapping
	North American

See also

• Intervocalic alveolar flapping
• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiceless alveolar flap