Voiced retroflex trill

"Retroflex trill" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless retroflex trill.

Voiced retroflex trill
ɽ͡r
IPA number	125 674 122
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɽ​͡​r
Unicode (hex)	U+027D U+0361 U+0072

A voiced retroflex trill is a contour consonant with the duration of a single segment. Although the tongue starts out in a subapical retroflex position, trilling involves the tip of the tongue and causes it to move forward to the alveolar ridge. Thus, the retroflex trill gives a preceding vowel retroflex coloration, like other retroflex consonants, but the vibration itself is not much different from an alveolar trill. This has been reported in Toda and confirmed with laboratory measurements.

Peter Ladefoged transcribes it with the IPA letter that is defined as a retroflex flap, ⟨ɽ⟩, in broad transcription. In narrower transcription ⟨ɽ͡r⟩ is appropriate.

Other languages reported to have an (apico-)retroflex trill are Wintu and Lardil. In these languages the tip of the tongue approaches the hard palate, but the articulation is not subapical as it is in Toda. The trill has a retroflex flap allophone that occurs between vowels.

Several languages have been reported to have trilled retroflex affricates, such as [ɳɖ͡ɽ̝] and [ʈ͡ɽ̝̊], including Mapudungun, Malagasy, Fijian, and Baima. However, the exact articulation is rarely clear from descriptions. In Fijian, for example, subsequent investigation revealed that the sound (orthographic dr) is rarely trilled, but is usually realized as a postalveolar stop [n̠d̠] instead. In Mapudungun, the sound (orthographic tr) is strongly retroflex, causing /l/ and /r/ following the subsequent vowel to become retroflex as well. The southern dialect varies between /ʈɽ/ and /ʈʂ/, but it is not clear whether the letter ⟨ɽ⟩ is intended to represent a flap, a trill, or a non-sibilant fricative.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Dutch	North Brabant	riem	[ɽrim]	'belt'	A rare variant of /r/, which occurs almost exclusively word-initially. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	North Holland
Scottish Gaelic	Lewis	rèidh	[ɽrˠɛː]	'flat, even'	Dialectal realization of /rˠ/. Weakly trilled and can be partially devoiced.
Toda		kaṛ	[kaɽr]	'pen for calves'	Subapical but it is not purely retroflex. Although the tongue starts out in a sub-apical retroflex position, trilling involves the tip of the tongue, and this causes it to move forward toward the alveolar ridge. This means that the retroflex trill gives a preceding vowel retroflex coloration the way other retroflex consonants do, but that the vibration itself is not much different from the other trills. Toda contrasts plain and palatalized fronted alveolar, alveolar and retroflex trills.
Wintu		boloy nor-toror	[boloj noɽr toɽoɽr]	'(ridge on a trail from Hayfork to Hyampom)'	Apico-postalveolar. Occurs as [ɽ] when intervocalic.

References

• Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1940), The dialects of the Outer Hebrides, A linguistic survey of the dialects of Scotland, vol. 1, Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Universities Press
• Goeman, Ton; Van de Velde, Hans (2001), "Co-occurrence constraints on /r/ and /ɣ/ in Dutch dialects", in van de Velde, Hans; van Hout, Roeland (eds.), 'r-atics, Brussels: Etudes & Travaux, pp. 91–112, ISSN 0777-3692
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
• Pitkin, Harvey (1984), Wintu grammar, Berkeley: University of California Press., ISBN 0-520-09612-6