The voiceless retroflex flap or tap is a sound that has been reported to occur as a dialectal realization of /ʂ/ in the
Dhivehi language.[1] The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɽ̊⟩, and the equivalent
X-SAMPA symbol is r`_0.
Features
Features of the voiceless retroflex flap:
Its
manner of articulation is
tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
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 air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
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.