R-colored vowel

Last updated

R-colored vowel
◌˞
ɚ
ɝ
ɹ̩
ɻ̍
IPA Number 327
Audio sample
source  · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)˞
Unicode (hex)U+02DE
X-SAMPA @`
Spectrogram of [@] and its rhotacized counterpart [@] Rhoticity spectrogramf.png
Spectrogram of [ə] and its rhotacized counterpart [ɚ]

Notation

In the IPA, an r-colored vowel is indicated by a hook diacritic ˞ placed to the right of the regular symbol for the vowel. For example, the IPA symbol for schwa is ə, while the IPA symbol for an r-colored schwa is ɚ. Similarly, the IPA symbol for the open-mid central unrounded vowel is ɜ, while an r-colored open-mid central unrounded vowel is ɝ. This diacritic is the hook of ɚ or ɝ, symbols constructed by John Samuel Kenyon along with by adding the retroflex hook (right hook) to ə and ɜ. [5] Both ɚ and ɝ were proposed as IPA symbols by the editors of American Speech in 1939 to distinguish it from [əɹ]. [6]

The IPA adopted several ways to transcribe r-colored vowels in its 1947 chart: the turned r ɹ; the superscript turned r əʴ, , , ɔʴ, etc.; the retroflex hook , , , , etc.; [7] and added ɚ as a variant of in its 1951 chart. [8] In 1976 the retroflex hook was dropped due to insufficient usage. [9] In 1989, at the Kiel Convention, the hook of ɚ and ɝ was adopted as a diacritic placed on the right side of the vowel symbol for r-colored vowels, e.g. ɛ˞ o˞ ɔ˞. [10] Following the convention of alternating ɜ and ə for non-rhotic accents, ɝ and ɚ signify stressed and unstressed, respectively, rather than a difference in phonetic quality. [11] The use of the superscript turned r (əʴ) is still commonly seen.

Examples

English

Mandarin Chinese

In Mandarin, the rhotacized ending of some words is the prime way by which to distinguish speakers of Standard Northern Mandarin (Beijing Mandarin) and Southwestern Mandarin from those of other forms of Mandarin in China. Mandarin speakers call this phenomenon erhua . In many words, the -r suffix (simplified Chinese :; traditional Chinese :) is added to indicate some meaning changes. If the word ends in a velar nasal (ng), the final consonant is lost and the vowel becomes nasalized. [13] Major cities that have this form of rhotacized ending include Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, Shenyang, Changchun, Jilin, Harbin, and Qiqihar. This erhua has since spread to other provincial capitals not home to Standard Mandarin, such as Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Xi'an, Chongqing, and Chengdu.

In rhotic accents of Standard Mandarin, such as those from Beijing, Tianjin, most of the Hebei province (e.g. Tangshan, Baoding, Chengde), eastern Inner Mongolia (e.g. Chifeng, Hailar), and in the Northeast, vocalic r occurs as a diminutive marker of nouns (pinyin :ér) and the perfective aspect particle (; le). This also occurs in the middle syllables of compound words consisting of three or more syllables. For example, the name of the famous restaurant Go Believe (狗不理) in Tianjin is pronounced as 'Gourbli' (Gǒu(r)bùGǒurblǐ). The name of the street Dazhalan (大栅栏) in Beijing is pronounced as 'Da-shi-lar' (Dàshànn(r)Dàshílàr).

Quebec French

In Quebec French, the vowel /œ̃/ is generally pronounced [œ̃˞] and the r-colored vowels are also pronounced in loan words.[ citation needed ] For example, the word hamburger can be pronounced [ambɚɡɚ], the word soccer can be pronounced [sɒkɚ] etc.

The vowel /ø/ may be pronounced as [ø˞ː] in open syllables.

Other examples

In the 1930s the Dravidian language Badaga had two degrees of rhoticity among all five of its vowels, but few speakers maintain the distinction today, and then only in one or two vowels. An example is non-rhotic [be] "mouth", slightly rhotacized ("half retroflexed") [be˞] "bangle", and fully rhotacized ("fully retroflexed") [be˞˞] "crop". [14]

The Algic language Yurok illustrated rhotic vowel harmony. The non-high vowels /a/, /e/ and /o/ could become /ɚ/ in a word that has /ɚ/. For example, the root /nahks-/ 'three' became /nɚhks-/ in the word /nɚhksɚʔɚjɬ/ 'three (animals or birds)'. [15]

Luobohe Miao also contains [ɚ]. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no turbulence. This class is composed of sounds like and semivowels like and, as well as lateral approximants like.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E</span> 5th letter of the Latin alphabet

E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is e ; plural es, Es or E's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Phonetic Alphabet</span> System of phonetic notation

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation for the sounds of speech. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.

In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩ in the Latin script and ⟨Р⟩, ⟨p⟩ in the Cyrillic script. They are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by upper- or lower-case variants of Roman ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩: ⟨r⟩, ⟨ɾ⟩, ⟨ɹ⟩, ⟨ɻ⟩, ⟨ʀ⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɽ⟩, and ⟨ɺ⟩. Transcriptions for vocalic or semivocalic realisations of underlying rhotics include the ⟨ə̯⟩ and ⟨ɐ̯⟩.

A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retroflex consonant</span> Type of consonant articulation

A retroflex, apico-domal, or cacuminalconsonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants—especially in Indology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced retroflex approximant</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɻ⟩ in IPA

The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɻ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is a turned lowercase letter r with a rightward hook protruding from the lower right of the letter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced velar approximant</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ɰ⟩ in IPA

The voiced velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɰ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is M\.

English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.

Stress is a prominent feature of the English language, both at the level of the word (lexical stress) and at the level of the phrase or sentence (prosodic stress). Absence of stress on a syllable, or on a word in some cases, is frequently associated in English with vowel reduction – many such syllables are pronounced with a centralized vowel (schwa) or with certain other vowels that are described as being "reduced". Various contradictory phonological analyses exist for these phenomena.

Americanist phonetic notation, also known as the North American Phonetic Alphabet (NAPA), the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet or the American Phonetic Alphabet (APA), is a system of phonetic notation originally developed by European and American anthropologists and language scientists for the phonetic and phonemic transcription of indigenous languages of the Americas and for languages of Europe. It is still commonly used by linguists working on, among others, Slavic, Uralic, Semitic languages and for the languages of the Caucasus, of India, and of much of Africa; however, Uralists commonly use a variant known as the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the International Phonetic Alphabet</span>

The International Phonetic Alphabet was created soon after the International Phonetic Association was established in the late 19th century. It was intended as an international system of phonetic transcription for oral languages, originally for pedagogical purposes. The Association was established in Paris in 1886 by French and British language teachers led by Paul Passy. The prototype of the alphabet appeared in Phonetic Teachers' Association (1888b). The Association based their alphabet upon the Romic alphabet of Henry Sweet, which in turn was based on the Phonotypic Alphabet of Isaac Pitman and the Palæotype of Alexander John Ellis.

In phonetics and phonology, checked vowels are those that commonly stand in a stressed closed syllable, while free vowels are those that can stand in either a stressed closed syllable or a stressed open syllable.

A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms a syllable on its own, like the m, n and l in some pronunciations of the English words rhythm, button and bottle, respectively. To represent it, the understroke diacritic in the International Phonetic Alphabet is used, U+0329◌̩COMBINING VERTICAL LINE BELOW. It may be instead represented by an overstroke, U+030D◌̍COMBINING VERTICAL LINE ABOVE if the symbol that it modifies has a descender, such as in.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) possesses a variety of obsolete and nonstandard symbols. Throughout the history of the IPA, characters representing phonetic values have been modified or completely replaced. An example is ⟨ɷ⟩ for standard. Several symbols indicating secondary articulation have been dropped altogether, with the idea that they should be indicated with diacritics: for is one. In addition, the rare voiceless implosive series has been dropped.

Hindustani is the lingua franca of northern India and Pakistan, and through its two standardized registers, Hindi and Urdu, a co-official language of India and co-official and national language of Pakistan respectively. Phonological differences between the two standards are minimal.

Nepali is the national language of Nepal. Besides being spoken as a mother tongue by more than 48% of the population of Nepal, it is also spoken in Bhutan and India. The language is recognized in the Nepali constitution as an official language of Nepal.

In phonetics and phonology, relative articulation is description of the manner and place of articulation of a speech sound relative to some reference point. Typically, the comparison is made with a default, unmarked articulation of the same phoneme in a neutral sound environment. For example, the English velar consonant is fronted before the vowel compared to articulation of before other vowels. This fronting is called palatalization.

In typesetting, the hook or tail is a diacritic mark attached to letters in many alphabets. In shape it looks like a hook and it can be attached below as a descender, on top as an ascender and sometimes to the side. The orientation of the hook can change its meaning: when it is below and curls to the left it can be interpreted as a palatal hook, and when it curls to the right is called hook tail or tail and can be interpreted as a retroflex hook. It should not be mistaken with the hook above, a diacritical mark used in Vietnamese, or the rhotic hook, used in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

This article explains the phonology of Malay and Indonesian based on the pronunciation of Standard Malay, which is the official language of Brunei and Singapore, "Malaysian" of Malaysia, and Indonesian the official language of Indonesia and a working language in Timor Leste. There are two main standards for Malay pronunciation, the Johor-Riau standard, used in Brunei and Malaysia, and the Baku, used in Indonesia and Singapore.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Peter Ladefoged; Ian Maddieson (1996). The sounds of the world's languages. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 313. ISBN   0-631-19815-6. Archived from the original on 2016-05-10. Retrieved 2016-09-24.
  2. (in Portuguese) Acoustic-phonetic characteristics of the Brazilian Portuguese's retroflex /r/: data from respondents in Pato Branco, Paraná Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine . Irineu da Silva Ferraz. Pages 19–21
  3. (in Portuguese) Syllable coda /r/ in the "capital" of the Paulista hinterland: sociolinguistic analysis Archived 2013-09-26 at the Wayback Machine . Cândida Mara Britto LEITE. Page 111 (page 2 in the attached PDF)
  4. (in Portuguese) Callou, Dinah. Leite, Yonne. "Iniciação à Fonética e à Fonologia". Jorge Zahar Editora 2001, p. 24
  5. John Samuel Kenyon (1935). American pronunciation: a textbook of phonetics for students of English. G. Wahr. p. 191. Archived from the original on 2021-08-16. Retrieved 2020-03-16.
  6. "A Petition". American Speech. 14 (3). Duke University Press: 206–208. October 1939. doi:10.2307/451421. JSTOR   451421.
  7. Association phonétique internationale (1947). "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1947)". Le Maître Phonétique. Troisième série. 25 (88). Supplement. JSTOR   44748304.
  8. Association phonétique internationale (1952). "The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1951)". Le Maître Phonétique. Troisième série. 30 (97). Front matter. JSTOR   44748475.
  9. Wells, John C. (1976). "The Association's Alphabet". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 6 (1): 2–3. doi:10.1017/S0025100300001420. S2CID   249403800.
  10. International Phonetic Association (1989). "Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 19 (1): 67–80. doi:10.1017/S0025100300003868. S2CID   249412330.
  11. Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 1: An Introduction (pp. i–xx, 1–278). Cambridge University Press. p. 121. ISBN   0-52129719-2 .
  12. 1 2 John Ellery Clark; Colin Yallop; Janet Fletcher (2007). An introduction to phonetics and phonology (third ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell. p. 66. ISBN   978-1-4051-3083-7. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2016-09-24.
  13. Duanmu, San (2007). The phonology of Standard Chinese (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 212–224.
  14. http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/appendix/languages/badaga/badaga.html Archived 2021-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
  15. "Yurok – Survey of California and Other Indian Languages". linguistics.berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
  16. "Luobohe Miao language". Omniglot.com. Archived from the original on 2017-11-26. Retrieved 2017-11-23.

Further reading