Retroflex Consonant - in The IPA

In The IPA

Retroflex consonants are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as follows:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
retroflex nasal Swedish Vänern Vänern
voiceless retroflex plosive Hindi टापू (ṭāpū) island
voiced retroflex plosive Swedish nord north
voiceless retroflex fricative Mandarin 上海 (Shànghǎi) Shanghai
voiced retroflex fricative Russian
Polish
жаба
żaba
frog
retroflex approximant Tamil தமிழ் (Tamil) Tamil
retroflex lateral approximant Swedish Karlstad Karlstad
retroflex flap Hausa shaara sweeping
 (ɺ̢) retroflex lateral flap Pashto ړوند blind
ǃ˞ (‼) (voiced) retroflex click Central Juu water

Note: In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the symbols for retroflex consonants are typically the same as for the alveolar consonants, but with the addition of a right-facing hook to the bottom of the symbol. Some linguists restrict these symbols for the "true" retroflex consonants with subapical palatal articulation, and use the alveolar symbols with the obsolete IPA underdot symbol for an apical post-alveolar articulation: . Another solution, more in keeping with the official IPA, would be to use the rhotic diacritic for the apical retroflexes: . Laminal retroflexes, as in Polish and Russian, are often transcribed with a retraction diacritic, as, etc. Otherwise they are typically but inaccurately transcribed as if they were palato-alveolar, as *, etc.

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