Voiceless retroflex plosive

IPA Number	105
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Encoding
X-SAMPA	t`
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The voiceless 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 ʈ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the symbol used for the equivalent alveolar consonant, in this case the voiceless alveolar plosive which has the symbol t. If lowercase letter t in the font used already has a rightward-pointing hook, then ʈ is distinguished from t by extending the rightward-pointing hook below the baseline as a descender. Compare t and ʈ.

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex plosive:

• Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is retroflex, which prototypically means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up, but more generally means that it is postalveolar without being palatalized.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Translation	Notes
Bengali		টাকা	[ʈɒːkaː]	'taka'	Bengali contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Brahui		?	[asiʈ]	'one'
English	Indian dialects	[[[English orthography|time]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[ʈaɪm]	'time'	Corresponds to alveolar /t/ in other dialects. See English phonology
Hindi		[[[Devanāgarī|टालना]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: deva not supported for code: hi (help)	[ʈaːl.naː]	'to postpone'	Hindi contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hmong		raus	[ʈauʂ]	'immerse in liquid'
Hungarian	some dialects	[[[Hungarian phonology|tátika]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[ʈaːʈikɑ]	'linaria'	Corresponds to /t/ in other dialects; considered improper in formal situations.
Javanese		[[[Latin alphabet|bathang]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[baʈaŋ]	'cadaver'
Kannada		[[[Kannada script|ಟಠ್ಠು]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: knda not supported for code: kn (help)	[tʌʈʈu]	'to tap'	Kannada contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Malayalam		[[[Malayalam script|അഠുക]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: mlym not supported for code: ml (help)	[aʈuka]	'to cook'	Formal Malayalam may contrast unaspirated and aspirated forms
Marathi		[[[Devanāgarī|बटाटा]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: deva not supported for code: mr (help)	[bəʈaːʈaː]	'potato'	Marathi contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Norwegian		[[[Norwegian alphabet|kort]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[kɔʈː]	'card'	See Norwegian phonology
Nunggubuyu		[ʈakowa]		'prawn'
Pashto		ټول	[ʈol]	'all'
Swedish		[[[Swedish alphabet|karta]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[kʰɑːʈa]	'map'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil		[[[Tamil script|எட்டு]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: taml not supported for code: ta (help)	[eʈʈɯ]	'eight'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		[[[Telugu script|టఠ్ఠు]]] Error: {{Lang}}: script: telu not supported for code: te (help)	[tʌʈʈu]	'to strike'	Telugu contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Urdu		آٹه۔code: urd promoted to code: ur	[ɑːʈʰ]	'eight'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Welayta		[ʈaza]		'dew'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116
• Ladefoged, Peter (2005). Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.). Blackwell.

External links

• Phonology of English, including dialectical variations