Voiceless retroflex lateral fricative

IPA Unicode 0xA78E

Voiceless retroflex lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. This sound is notable for its method of articulation, which involves the airflow being obstructed along the sides of the tongue, but not in the middle, and is classified in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) by the symbol ⟨ɭ̊˔⟩.

Articulation

The articulation of the voiceless retroflex lateral fricative involves several specific actions within the vocal tract:

• Retroflex: The tongue is curled back towards the palate, which is characteristic of retroflex sounds.
• Lateral: Air escapes over one or both sides of the tongue.
• Fricative: Produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together, in this case, the tongue and the roof of the mouth, causing turbulence.

Characteristics

This sound does not occur in many languages and is considered somewhat rare. It is characterized by its unique place of articulation and manner, making it distinct from more common sounds like the voiceless lateral alveolar fricative found in Welsh or the voiceless retroflex fricative found in Mandarin Chinese.

Occurrence

The voiceless retroflex lateral fricative is not widespread globally and tends to be found in languages of specific regions or among certain language families. For example, it is reported in some dialects of Toda, a Dravidian language spoken in South India. Its rarity makes it a point of interest for phonetics and linguistics researchers studying the diversity of sound systems across languages.

Phonetic Notation

In the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the voiceless retroflex lateral fricative is represented by the symbol ⟨ɭ̊˔⟩. This notation combines the letter for the retroflex lateral approximant (ɭ) with a diacritic indicating voicelessness (a small circle under the letter) and a superscript indicating frication.

See Also

• Lateral consonant
• Fricative consonant
• Retroflex consonant
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• List of phonetic topics