Voiceless retroflex stop

Voiceless retroflex stop
ʈ
IPA number	105
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʈ
Unicode (hex)	U+0288
X-SAMPA	t`
Kirshenbaum	t.
Braille
Image
Sound
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The voiceless retroflex stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʈ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is t`. Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of tee (the letter used for the equivalent alveolar consonant). In many fonts lowercase tee already has a rightward-pointing hook, but ⟨ʈ⟩ is distinguished from ⟨t⟩ by extending the hook below the baseline.

Features

Features of the 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 stop.

• 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 sub-apical articulation, the tongue contact can be apical (pointed) or 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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Translation	Notes
Bengali	Western dialects	টাকা	[ʈɒka]	'taka'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. Corresponds to alveolar/palato-alveolar /t/ in Eastern dialects.
Brahui		?	[asiʈ]	'one'
Chinese	Xiang	真	[ʈen]	'true'	Corresponds to /ʈ͡ʂ/ in other dialects.
	Wu
English	Indian dialects	time	[ʈaɪm]	'time'	Corresponds to alveolar /t/ in other dialects. See English phonology
Hindi[1]		टालना	[ʈaːl.naː]	'to postpone'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hmong		raus	[ʈàu]	'immerse in liquid'	Contrasts with aspirated form (written ⟨rh⟩).
Iwaidja		yirrwartbart	[jiɺwɑʈbɑʈ]	'taipan'
Javanese		bathang	[baʈaŋ]	'cadaver'
Kannada		ತಟ್ಟು	[tʌʈʈu]	'to tap'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Malayalam		അഠുക	[aʈuka]	'to cook'	Formal varieties may contrast unaspirated and aspirated forms
Marathi		बटाटा	[bəʈaːʈaː]	'potato'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms. See Marathi phonology
Mutsun		ṭiṭkušte	[ʈiʈkuʃtɛ]	'torn'
Norwegian		kort	[kɔʈː]	'card'	See Norwegian phonology
Nunggubuyu[2]		[ʈakowa]		'prawn'
Pashto		ټول	[ʈol]	'all'
Punjabi		ਟੋਪੀ	[ʈoːpi]	'hat'
Sicilian		trenu	[ˈʈɽɛnu]	'train'
Swedish[3]		karta	[ˈkʰɑːʈa]	'map'	See Swedish phonology
Tamil[4]		எட்டு	[eʈʈɯ]	'eight'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		కొట్టు	[koʈʈu]	'beat'	Contrasts unaspirated and aspirated forms
Torwali[5]		?	[ʈijɛl̥]	'words'	contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms
Urdu		ٹوپی	[ʈoːpiː]	'hat'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Vietnamese	Southern dialects[6]	bạn trả	[ɓaɳ˧ˀ˨ʔ ʈa˧˩˧]	'you pay'	May be somewhat affricated. See Vietnamese phonology
Welayta		[ʈaza]		'dew'

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Ladefoged (2005:141)
2. Ladefoged (2005:158)
3. Eliasson (1986:278–279)
4. Keane (2004:111)
5. Lunsford (2001:11–16)
6. Thompson (1959:458–461)

Bibliography

• Eliasson, Stig (1986), "Sandhi in Peninsular Scandinavian", in Anderson, Henning, 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
• 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
• Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232

External links

• Phonology of English, including dialectical variations