Retroflex lateral approximant

Retroflex lateral approximant
ɭ
IPA number	156
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɭ
Unicode (hex)	U+026D
X-SAMPA	l`
Kirshenbaum	l.
Braille
Image

The retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɭ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l`.

The retroflex lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ɭ̊/ in Iaai and Toda. In both of these languages it also contrasts with more anterior /l̥, l/, which are dental in Iaai and alveolar in Toda.

Features

Features of the retroflex lateral approximant:

• Its manner of articulation is approximant, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but not enough to produce a turbulent airstream.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated subapical (with the tip of the tongue curled up), but more generally, it means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or laminal (flat).
• 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ɭ̺] and laminal [ɭ̻].

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Enindhilyagwa		marluwiya	[maɭuwija]	'emu'
Faroese		árla	[ɔɻɭa]	'early'	Allophone of /l/ after /ɹ/. See Faroese phonology
French	Standard	belles jambes	[bɛɭ ʒɑ̃bə]	'attractive legs'	Allophone of /l/ before /f/ and /ʒ/ for some speakers. See French phonology
Kannada		ಎಳ್ಳು	[ˈeɭɭu]	'sesame'	Represented by a ⟨ಳ⟩
Khanty	Eastern dialects	пуӆ	[puɭ]	'bit'
	Some northern dialects
Malayalam		മലയാളി	[mɐl̪əjɐ̞ːɭ̺ɪ]	'Malayalam people'	Represented by a ⟨ള⟩. Apical. Never word-initial and long and short forms are contrastive word-medially
Mapudungun		mara	[ˈmɐ̝ɭɜ]	'hare'	Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɻ] instead.
Norwegian		farlig	[fɑːɭi]	'dangerous'	Eastern and central dialects. See Norwegian phonology
Punjabi		ਤ੍ਰੇਲ਼	[t̪ɾeɭ]	'dew'	Represented by a ⟨ਲ਼⟩. Mostly found in rural dialects
Swedish		sorl	[soːɭ]	'murmur' (noun)	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		புளி	[puɭi]	'tamarind'	Represented by a ⟨ள்⟩. See Tamil phonology
Telugu		నీళ్ళు	[niːɭːu]	'water'	Represented by a ⟨ళ⟩

See also

• Index of phonetics articles