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In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another.
The main difference between a tap or flap and a stop is that in a tap/flap there is no buildup of air pressure behind the place of articulation and consequently no release burst. Otherwise a tap/flap is similar to a brief stop.
Taps and flaps also contrast with trills, where the airstream causes the articulator to vibrate. Trills may be realized as a single contact, like a tap or flap, but are variable, whereas a tap/flap is limited to a single contact. When a trill is brief and made with a single contact it is sometimes erroneously described as an (allophonic) tap/flap, but a true tap or flap is an active articulation whereas a trill is a passive articulation. That is, for a tap or flap the tongue makes an active gesture to contact the target place of articulation, whereas with a trill the contact is due to the vibration caused by the airstream rather than any active movement.
Many linguists use the terms tap and flap indiscriminately. Peter Ladefoged proposed for a while that it might be useful to distinguish between them. However, his usage was inconsistent and contradicted itself even between different editions of the same text. [1] One proposed version of the distinction was that a tap strikes its point of contact directly, as a very brief stop, but a flap strikes the point of contact tangentially: "Flaps are most typically made by retracting the tongue tip behind the alveolar ridge and moving it forward so that it strikes the ridge in passing."
Later, however, he used the term flap in all cases. [2] Subsequent work on the labiodental flap has clarified the issue: flaps involve retraction of the active articulator, and a forward-striking movement. [3]
For linguists who do not make the proposed distinction above, alveolars are typically called taps, and other articulations are called flaps.
A few languages have been reported to contrast a tap and a flap (as in the proposed definition cited above) at the same place of articulation. This is the case for Norwegian, in which the alveolar apical tap /ɾ/ and the post-alveolar/retroflex apical flap /ɽ/ have the same place of articulation for some speakers, [4] and Kamviri, which also has apical alveolar taps and flaps. [5]
The tap and flap consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
| ɾ | alveolar tap | Spanish | pero | [peɾo] | "but" |
| ɺ | alveolar lateral flap | Venda | vula | [vuɺa] | "to open" |
| ɽ | retroflex flap | Warlpiri | rdupa | [ɽupa] | "windbreak" |
| 𝼈 | retroflex lateral flap | Kobon | ƚawƚ | [𝼈aw𝼈] | "to shoot" |
| ⱱ | labiodental flap | Karang | vbara | [ⱱara] | "animal" |
The Kiel Convention of the IPA recommended that for other taps and flaps, a homorganic consonant, such as a stop or trill, should be used with a breve diacritic:
Tap or flaps: where no independent symbol for a tap is provided, the breve diacritic should be used, e.g.[ʀ̆] or [n̆]. [6]
However, the former could be mistaken for a short trill, and is more clearly transcribed ⟨ɢ̆⟩, whereas for a nasal tap the unambiguous transcription ⟨ɾ̃⟩ is generally used.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental | Linguo- labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Epi- glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central oral | ⱱ̟ (b̆,w̆) | ⱱ̥ (f̆)· ⱱ (v̆) | ɾ̼ | ɾ̪ | ɾ̥ · ɾ | ɾ̠ | ɽ̊ · ɽ | ɢ̆ (ʀ̆) | ʡ̮ (ʢ̮) | ||
| Central nasal | ⱱ̟̃ (m̆) | ɾ̪̃ | ɾ̃ (n̆) | ɽ̃ (ɳ̆ ) | |||||||
| Central fricative | ɾ̞̊ ɾ̞ | ||||||||||
| Lateral oral | ɺ̪ | ɺ̥ [8] · ɺ | ɺ̠ | 𝼈 (ɭ̆ ) | ʎ̮ | ʟ̆ | |||||
| Lateral nasal | ɺ̃ | ||||||||||
Most of the alternative transcriptions in parentheses imply a tap rather than flap articulation, so for example the flap [ⱱ̟] and the tapped stop [b̆] are arguably distinct, as are flapped [ɽ̃] and tapped [ɳ̆].
Spanish features a good illustration of an alveolar flap, contrasting it with a trill: pero/ˈpeɾo/ "but" vs. perro/ˈpero/ "dog". Among the Germanic languages, the tap allophone occurs in American and Australian English and in Northern Low Saxon. In American and Australian English it tends to be an allophone of intervocalic /t/ and /d/, leading to homophonous pairs such as "metal" / "medal" and "latter" / "ladder" – see tapping. In a number of Low Saxon dialects it occurs as an allophone of intervocalic /d/ or /t/; e.g. bäden /beeden/ → [ˈbeːɾn] 'to pray', 'to request', gah to Bedde! /gaa tou bede/ → [ˌɡɑːtoʊˈbeɾe] 'go to bed!', Water/vaater/ → [ˈvɑːɾɜ] 'water', Vadder /fater/ → [ˈfaɾɜ] 'father'. (In some dialects this has resulted in reanalysis and a shift to /r/; thus bären[ˈbeːrn], to Berre[toʊˈbere], Warer[ˈvɑːrɜ], Varrer[ˈfarɜ].) Occurrence varies; in some Low Saxon dialects it affects both /t/ and /d/, while in others it affects only /d/. Other languages with this are Portuguese, Korean, and Austronesian languages with /r/.
In Galician, Portuguese and Sardinian, a flap often appears instead of a former /l/. This is part of a wider phenomenon called rhotacism.
Most Indic and Dravidian languages have retroflex flaps. In Hindi there are three, a simple retroflex flap as in [bəɽaː]big, a murmured retroflex flap as in [koɽʱiː]leper, and a retroflex nasal flap in the Hindicized pronunciation of Sanskrit [məɽ̃iː]gem. Some of these may be allophonic.
A retroflex flap is also common in Norwegian dialects and some Swedish dialects.
Many of the languages of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific that do not distinguish [r] from l may have a lateral flap. However, it is also possible that many of these languages do not have a lateral–central contrast at all, so that even a consistently neutral articulation may be perceived as sometimes lateral [ɺ] or [l], sometimes central [ɾ]. This has been suggested to be the case for Japanese, for example. [9]
The Iwaidja language of Australia has both alveolar and retroflex lateral flaps. These contrast with lateral approximants at the same positions, as well as a retroflex tap [ɽ], alveolar tap [ɾ], and retroflex approximant [ɻ]. However, the flapped, or tapped, laterals in Iwaidja are distinct from 'lateral flaps' as represented by the corresponding IPA symbols (see below). These phones consist of a flap component followed by a lateral component, whereas In Iwaidja the opposite is the case. For this reason, current IPA transcriptions of these sounds by linguists working on the language consist of an alveolar lateral followed by a superscript alveolar tap and a retroflex lateral followed by a superscript retroflex tap.
A velar lateral tap may exist as an allophone in a few languages of New Guinea, according to Peter Ladefoged and Ian Maddieson.
The only common non-coronal flap is the labiodental flap, found throughout central Africa in languages such as Margi. In 2005, the IPA adopted a right-hook v, ⟨ⱱ⟩:
Previously it had been transcribed with the use of the breve diacritic, [v̆], or other ad hoc symbols.
Other taps or flaps are much less common. They include an epiglottal tap; a bilabial flap in Banda, which may be an allophone of the labiodental flap; and a velar lateral tap as an allophone in Kanite and Melpa. These are often transcribed with the breve diacritic, as [w̆,ʟ̆]. Note here that, like a velar trill, a central velar flap or tap is not possible because the tongue and soft palate cannot move together easily enough to produce a sound.[ citation needed ]
If other flaps are found, the breve diacritic could be used to represent them, but would more properly be combined with the symbol for the corresponding voiced stop. A palatal or uvular tap or flap, which unlike a velar tap is believed to be articulatorily possible, could be represented this way (by *[ɟ̆,ɢ̆~ʀ̆]). [10]
Though deemed impossible on the IPA chart, a velar tap has been reported to occur allophonically in the Kamviri dialect of the Kamkata-vari language [11] and in Dàgáárè, though at least in the latter case this may in fact be a palatal tap. [12] [13]
Nasalized consonants include taps and flaps, although these are rarely phonemic. In conversational (rather than carefully enunciated) speech, American English often features a nasal flap when /n/ or /nt/ are in intervocalic position before an unstressed vowel; for example, "winner" and "winter" become homophones: ['wɪ(~)ɾ̃ɚ]. Many West African languages have a nasal flap [ɾ̃] (or [n̆]) as an allophone of /ɾ/ before a nasal vowel; Pashto, however, has a phonemic nasal retroflex lateral flap. As mentioned above, many Indo-Aryan languages also possess a phonemic retroflex nasal flap that contrasts with the alveolar nasal stop. [ citation needed ]
Voiced and voiceless tapped alveolar fricatives have been reported from a few languages. Flapped fricatives are possible but do not seem to be used. [14] See voiced alveolar tapped fricative, voiceless alveolar tapped fricative.
In phonology, an allophone is one of multiple possible spoken sounds – or phones – used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosive and the aspirated form are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in some languages such as Central Thai. Similarly, in Spanish, and are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in English.
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.
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German ; or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh. This turbulent airflow is called frication.
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.
A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English L, as in Larry. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth.
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⟩.
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth.
In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth, such as and. In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written.
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and the symbol for the voiced fricative is used instead. Uvular affricates can certainly be made but are rare: they occur in some southern High-German dialects, as well as in a few African and Native American languages. Uvular consonants are typically incompatible with advanced tongue root, and they often cause retraction of neighboring vowels.
In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some languages have glottalized sonorants with creaky voice that pattern with ejectives phonologically, and other languages have ejectives that pattern with implosives, which has led to phonologists positing a phonological class of glottalic consonants, which includes ejectives.
Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate, the place of articulation for palatal consonants. Examples of postalveolar consonants are the English palato-alveolar consonants, as in the words "ship", "'chill", "vision", and "jump", respectively.
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.
The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental, alveolar, or postalveolar tap or flap is ⟨ɾ⟩.
The alveolar or postalveolar clicks are a family of click consonants found only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. The tongue is more or less concave, and is pulled down rather than back as in the palatal clicks, making a hollower sound than those consonants.
In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the active articulator and passive articulator. Standard Spanish ⟨rr⟩ as in perro, for example, is an alveolar trill.
In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is.
Implosive consonants are a group of stop consonants with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can be modified by phonation. Contrastive implosives are found in approximately 13% of the world's languages.
Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner. They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articulated consonants with secondary articulation; that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. An example of a doubly articulated consonant is the voiceless labial–velar plosive, which is a and a pronounced simultaneously. On the other hand, the voiceless labialized velar plosive has only a single stop articulation, velar, with a simultaneous approximant-like rounding of the lips. In some dialects of Arabic, the voiceless velar fricative has a simultaneous uvular trill, but this is not considered double articulation either.
The pronunciation of the phoneme in the English language has many variations in different dialects.
