Voiced retroflex plosive

Voiced retroflex plosive
ɖ
Image
IPA number	106
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɖ
Unicode (hex)	U+0256
X-SAMPA	d`
Kirshenbaum	d.
Sound

The voiced retroflex plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɖ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is d`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of a dee (the letter used for the corresponding alveolar consonant). Many Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between plain and murmured (breathy voice) [ɖ ].

Features

Features of the voiced retroflex plosive:

• Its manner of articulation is stop, or plosive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. (The term plosive contrasts with nasal stops, where the blocked airflow is redirected through the nose.)
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated sub-apical - 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 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
Asturian	Astierna dialect	ḷḷingüa	[ɖiŋɡua]	'tongue'	Corresponds to /ʎ/ in other dialects. See Che Vaqueira
Western Bengali		ডিম	[ɖim]	'egg'	See Bengali phonology
English	Indian dialects	dine	[ɖaɪn]	'to eat'	Corresponds to /d/ in other dialects. See English phonology
Hindi		डेढ़	[ɖeːɽʱ]	'one and a half'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Javanese		?/dhahar	--	'to eat'
Kannada		ಅಧಸು	[ʌɖʌsu]	'to join'
Malayalam		പാണ്ഡവര്	[ˈpäːɳɖäʋər]	'Pandavas'
Nihali		[biɖum]		'one'
Norwegian		varde	[vɑɖːɛ]	'beacon'	See Norwegian phonology
Pashto		ډﻙ	[ɖak]	'full'
Punjabi		ਮੁੰਡਾ	[mʊɳɖa]	'boy'
Sardinian		cherveddu	[kerˈvɛɖːu]	'brain'
Sicilian		beddu	[ˈbɛɖːu]	'handsome'
Swedish		nord	[nuːɖ]	'north'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		வண்டி	[ʋəɳɖi]	'cart'	Allophone of /ʈ/. See Tamil phonology
Telugu		అఢరు	[ʌɖʌru]	'to arise'
Torwali		?	[ɖiɣu]	'late afternoon'	realised as [ɽ] between vowels
Urdu		ڈالنا	[ɖälnä]	'to put'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology

Bibliography

• Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (1): 111–116, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549 
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell 
• Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson, The sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell Publishers, 1996. ISBN 0-631-19815-6
• Lunsford, Wayne A. (2001), "An overview of linguistic structures in Torwali, a language of Northern Pakistan", M.A. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, http://www.fli-online.org/documents/languages/torwali/wayne_lunsford_thesis.pdf 
• Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-521-29944-6

See also

• African D
• List of phonetics topics