The uvular flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. There is no dedicated symbol for this sound in the IPA. It can specified by adding a 'short' diacritic to the letter for the uvular plosive, ⟨ɢ̆⟩, but normally it is covered by the unmodified letter for the uvular trill, ⟨ʀ⟩, since the two have never been reported to contrast.
The uvular flap is not known to exist as a phoneme in any language. However, it has been reported as an allophone of other sounds in various languages, including:
- an initial pharyngeal approximant in Southern Okanagan,
- /ɡ/ in unstressed syllables in Supyire,
- the velar lateral fricative // in Wahgi.
More commonly, it is said to vary with the much more frequent uvular trill, and is most likely a single-contact trill rather than an actual flap in these languages. (The primary difference between a flap and a trill is that of the airstream, not the number of contacts.)
Read more about Uvular Flap: Features, Occurrence
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Satire or sense, alas, can Sporus feel,
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—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)