Voiceless retroflex plosive

Voiceless retroflex plosive
Voiceless retroflex plosive
ʈ
IPA number	105
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288
X-SAMPA	t`
Braille
Image

Last updated October 16, 2025

A voiceless retroflex plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. This consonant is found as a phoneme mostly (though not exclusively) in two areas: South Asia and Australia.

Transcription

The symbol that represents this sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet is ⟨ʈ ⟩. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of "t" (the letter used for the equivalent alveolar consonant). In many fonts lowercase "t" already has a rightward-pointing hook, but ⟨ʈ⟩ is distinguished from ⟨t⟩ by extending the hook below the baseline.

Features

Features of a voiceless retroflex stop:

Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
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 voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Translation	Notes
Bengali ^[1]		টাকা	[ʈaka]	'taka'	Apical postalveolar;^[1] contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Bengali phonology
Brahui		سىٹ	[asiʈ]	'one'
English	Indian dialects	time	[ʈaɪm]	'time'	Corresponds to alveolar /t/ in other dialects. See English phonology
English	General American	art	[ɑɻʈ]	'art'	Allophone of /t/ before /ɻ/ See English Phonology.
Gujarati ^[2]		બટાકા	[bəʈaːka]	'potato'	Subapical;^[2] contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Gujarati phonology
Hindustani ^[3]^[4]	Hindi	टोपी	[ʈoːpiː]	'hat'	Apical postalveolar
Hindustani ^[3]^[4]	Urdu	ٹوپی	[ʈoːpiː]	'hat'	Apical postalveolar
Hmong		𖬅𖬰𖬡 / raus	[ʈàu]	'immerse in liquid'	Contrasts with aspirated form (written ⟨rh⟩).
Iwaidja		yirrwartbart	[jiɺwɑʈbɑʈ]	'taipan'
Javanese		bathang	[baʈaŋ]	'cadaver'
Kannada		ತಟ್ಟು	[t̪ʌʈːu]	'to tap'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Lo-Toga ^[5]		dege	[ʈəɣə]	'we (incl.)'	Laminal retroflex.
Malayalam		കാട്ട് / كٰاڊّْ / kāṭṭŭ	[kaːʈːɨ̆]	'wild'	Contrasts /t̪ t ʈ d̪ ɖ/.
Marathi ^[2]		बटाटा	[bəʈaːʈaː]	'potato'	Subapical;^[2] contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Marathi phonology
Mutsun		TiTkuSte	[ʈiʈkuʃtɛ]	'torn'
Nepali		टोली	[ʈoli]	'team'	Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		kort	[kɔʈː]	'card'	See Norwegian phonology
Nunggubuyu ^[6]		rdagowa	[ʈakowa]	'prawn'
Odia		ଟଗର / ṭagara	[ʈɔgɔrɔ]	'crepe jasmine'	Apical postalveolar; contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms.
Pashto		ټول	[ʈol]	'all'
Punjabi	Gurmukhi	ਟੋਪੀ	[ʈoːpi]	'hat'
Punjabi	Shahmukhi	ٹـوپی	[ʈoːpi]	'hat'
Scottish Gaelic	Some Hebridean dialects^[7]	àrd	[aːʈ]	'high'	Corresponds to the sequence /rˠt/ in other dialects. See Scottish Gaelic phonology
Sicilian		latru	[ˈlaʈɽu]	'thief'
Swedish ^[8]		karta	[ˈkʰɑːʈa]	'map'	See Swedish phonology
Sylheti		ꠐꠥꠟ꠆ꠟꠤ	[ʈulli]	'skull'	contains tonal pronunciation.^[9] See Sylheti phonology
Tamil ^[2]^[10]		எட்டு / يࣣڊُّ / eṭṭu	[eʈːɯ]	'eight'	Subapical.^[2] See Tamil phonology
Telugu		కొట్టు	[koʈːu]	'to hit or beat'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Torwali ^[11]^[12]		ٹـىىےل	[ʈiɡel]	'words'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
Urdu		ساٹھ	[saːʈ]	'sixty'
Vietnamese	Southern dialects^[13]	bạn trả	[ɓa˧˨ʔɳˀʈa˧˩˧]	'you pay'	May be somewhat affricated. See Vietnamese phonology
Welayta		[ʈaza]		'dew'

Notes

1 2 Mazumdar (2000 :57)
1 2 3 4 5 6 Khatiwada (2009 :374)
↑ Ladefoged (2005 :141)
↑ Tiwari (2004 :?)
↑ François (2009:189); François (2016:35).
↑ Ladefoged (2005 :158)
↑ Bauer, Michael. Blas na Gàidhlig: The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation. Glasgow: Akerbeltz, 2011.
↑ Eliasson (1986 :278–279)
↑ Wright, Tony (2002). "Doing language awareness". Language in Language Teacher Education. Language Learning & Language Teaching. Vol. 4. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 113–130. doi:10.1075/lllt.4.09wri. ISBN 978-90-272-1697-7 . Retrieved 2023-07-11.
↑ Keane (2004 :111)
↑ Lunsford (2001 :11–16)
↑ "ٹیگیل". Online Torwali Dictionary. Center for Language Engineering. Archived from the original on 2024-03-28.
↑ Thompson (1959 :458–461)

References

Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning (ed.), Sandhi Phenomena in the Languages of Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 271–300
Keane, Elinor (2004), "Tamil", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 111–116, doi: 10.1017/S0025100304001549
François, Alexandre (2009), "Verbal aspect and personal pronouns: The history of aorist markers in north Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pawley, Andrew; Adelaar, Alexander (eds.), Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: A festschrift for Bob Blust, vol. 601, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 179–195
François, Alexandre (2016), "The historical morphology of personal pronouns in northern Vanuatu" (PDF), in Pozdniakov, Konstantin (ed.), Comparatisme et reconstruction : tendances actuelles, Faits de Langues, vol. 47, Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 25–60.
Khatiwada, Rajesh (2009), "Nepali", Journal of the International Phonetic Association , 39 (3): 337–380, doi: 10.1017/s0025100309990181
Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (2nd ed.), Blackwell
Lunsford, Wayne A. (2001), "An overview of linguistic structures in Torwali, a language of Northern Pakistan" (PDF), M.A. Thesis, University of Texas at Arlington
Mazumdar, Bijaychandra (2000) [First published 1920], The history of the Bengali language , New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, ISBN 8120614526
Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232
Tiwari, Bholanath (2004) [First published 1966], Hindī Bhāshā, Kitāb Mahal: Kitāb Mahal, ISBN 81-225-0017-X

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[mazumdar-1] 1 2 Mazumdar (2000 :57)

[khatiwada-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Khatiwada (2009 :374)

[3] Ladefoged (2005 :141)

[tiwari-4] Tiwari (2004 :?)

[5] François (2009:189); François (2016:35).

[6] Ladefoged (2005 :158)

[7] Bauer, Michael. Blas na Gàidhlig: The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation. Glasgow: Akerbeltz, 2011.

[8] Eliasson (1986 :278–279)

[9] Wright, Tony (2002). "Doing language awareness". Language in Language Teacher Education. Language Learning & Language Teaching. Vol. 4. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 113–130. doi:10.1075/lllt.4.09wri. ISBN 978-90-272-1697-7 . Retrieved 2023-07-11.

[10] Keane (2004 :111)

[11] Lunsford (2001 :11–16)

[otd-12] "ٹیگیل". Online Torwali Dictionary. Center for Language Engineering. Archived from the original on 2024-03-28.

[13] Thompson (1959 :458–461)

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