Voiced retroflex lateral approximant

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɭ⟩ in IPA

IPA Number 156

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Entity (decimal) ɭ

Unicode (hex) U+026D

X-SAMPA l`

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The voiced 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.^[1] In both of these languages it also contrasts with more anterior /l̥, l/, which are dental in Iaai and alveolar in Toda.^[1] Goinoitan Latin Alphabet.

Features

Features of the voiced 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 subapical articulation, the tongue can be apical (pointed) or, in some fricatives, 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 intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, 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
Bashkir		ел	[jɪ̞ɭ]^ⓘ	'wind'	Apical retroflex lateral; occurs in front vowel contexts.
Dhivehi		ފަޅޯ / falhoa	[faɭoː]	'papaya'
Enindhilyagwa		marluwiya	[maɭuwija]	'emu'
Faroese		árla	[ɔɻɭa]	'early'	Allophone of /l/ after /ɹ/. See Faroese phonology
French	Standard^[2]	belle jambe	[bɛɭ ʒɑ̃b]	'beautiful leg'	Allophone of /l/ before /f/ and /ʒ/ for some speakers.^[2] See French phonology
Gujarati		નળ	[nəɭə]	'tap'	Represented by a ⟨ળ⟩. Pronounced as /ɭə/.^[3]
Kannada		ಎಳ್ಳು	[ˈeɭːu]	'sesame'	Represented by a ⟨ಳ⟩
Katukina-Kanamari^[4]			[ɭuːˈbɯ]	'to go'
Khanty	Eastern dialects	пуӆ	[puɭ]	'bit'
Khanty	Some northern dialects	пуӆ	[puɭ]	'bit'
Korean		솔 / sol	[soɭ]	'pine'	Represented by a ⟨ㄹ⟩. May also be pronounced as /l/.
Malayalam		മലയാളം	[mɐlɐjäːɭɐm]^ⓘ	'Malayalam'	Represented by the letter ⟨ള⟩. Sub apical retroflex. Long and short forms are contrastive word-medially^[5]^[6]
Mapudungun^[7]		mara	[ˈmɜɭɜ]	'hare'	Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɻ] instead.^[7]
Marathi		बाळ	[baːɭ]	'baby/child'	Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩. Pronounced as /ɭə/. See Marathi phonology.
Miyako	Irabu dialect	昼間ピィルマ	[pɭːma]	'daytime'	Allophone of /ɾ/ used everywhere except syllable-initially.
Norwegian	Eastern and central dialects	farlig	[ˈfɑːɭi]	'dangerous'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ଫଳ	[pʰɔɭɔ]	'fruit'	Represented by a ⟨ଳ⟩. Pronounced as /ɭɔ/.^[3]
Rajasthani		फळ	[pʰəɭ]	'fruit'	Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩.
Paiwan^[8]		ladjap	[ˈɭaɖap]	'lightning' or 'flash'	See Paiwan phonology
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਤ੍ਰੇਲ਼	[t̪ɾeɭ]	'dew'	Represented by a ⟨ਲ਼⟩ and ⟨لؕ⟩. Font support may be required to see the letter in Shahmukhi.
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	تریࣇ	[t̪ɾeɭ]	'dew'
Sanskrit	Vedic	गरुळ	[gɐruɭɐ]	'the mythological bird who Is the vahana of Lord Vishnu'	Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩. Pronounced as /ɭɐ/.This consonant was present in Vedic Sanskrit but had become /ɖ/ ⟨ड⟩ in classical Sanskrit. See Vedic Sanskrit and Sanskrit phonology.
Swedish		sorl	[soːɭ]^ⓘ	'murmur' (noun)	See Swedish phonology
Tamil^[9]		ஆள்	[äːɭ]	'person'	Represented by a ⟨ள்⟩. See Tamil phonology
Telugu		నీళ్ళు	[niːɭːu]^ⓘ	'water'	Represented by a ⟨ళ⟩

Notes

^ ^a ^b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 198.
^ ^a ^b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 192.
^ ^a ^b Masica (1991), p. 97.
^ Anjos (2012), p. 128.
^ Jiang (2010), pp. 16–17.
^ "Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
^ ^a ^b Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
^ "ladjap". Online Aboriginal Language Dictionary (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
^ Keane (2004), p. 111.

References

Anjos, Zoraide dos (2012). "Fonologia Katukina-Kanamari". LIAMES (in Brazilian Portuguese). 12 (1): 123–156. doi:10.20396/liames.v0i12.1486.
Jiang, Haowen (April 2010). "Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text" (PDF). Department of Linguistics, Rice University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-11.
Keane, Elinor (2004). "Tamil". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 34 (1): 111–116. doi:10.1017/S0025100304001549.
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
Masica, Colin (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013). "Mapudungun". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (1): 87–96. doi:10.1017/S0025100312000369.
Shimoji, Michinori (December 2008). "Phonology". A Grammar of Irabu, a Southern Ryukyuan Language (PhD thesis). The Australian National University. hdl:1885/150638.

External links

List of languages with [ɭ] on PHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

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Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

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Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

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Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]