Voiced retroflex fricative
The
voiced retroflex fricative is a type of
consonantal sound, used in some
spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is
z`.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
voiced alveolar fricative which has the symbol z. The IPA symbol is thus a lowercase letter
z with a rightward tail protruding from the lower right of the letter. Compare z and .
Features of the voiced retroflex fricative:
* Its
manner of articulation is
sibilant fricative, which means it is produced by directing air flow through a groove in the tongue at the place of articulation and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth, causing high-frequency
turbulence.
* 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. That is, besides the prototypical sub-apical (curled) articulation, the tongue contact can be
apical (pointed) or
laminal (flat).
* Its
phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
* 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.
*
Mandarin Chinese, represented by the
Hanyu Pinyin symbol
r.
*Laminal retroflex fricatives are found in
Russian and
Polish. In the Polish orthography, the voiced fricative is spelled
ż or
rz, as in
może 'perhaps', or
morze 'a sea'.
*Apical retroflex fricatives are found in the
Northwest Caucasian languages:
Ubykh "firewood".
*A common
allophone of /r/ in Central
Swedish;
rida "to ride"
*Exists as a voiced allophone to the voiceless retroflex fricative in
Castilian Spanish when directly preceding a voiced consonant, as in the word, "mismo" [miʐm"] 'same'.
*
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