A voiced alveolar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English-speakers as the "r" sound in "rose" (though typically ). The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents it is , a lowercase Latin letter rotated 180 degrees.
Features
thumb|upright=0.6|class=skin-invert-image|[[Sagittal section of a voiced alveolar approximant]]
Features of a voiced alveolar approximant:
Occurrence
Alveolar
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
|-
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| Albanian || Standard || gjelbër || || 'green' || Allophone of . See Albanian phonology
|-
| Armenian || Classical || || || 'coffee' ||
|-
| colspan="2"|Assamese|| ৰঙা (rônga) || || 'red' ||
|-
|rowspan=2|Assyrian Neo-Aramaic ||Alqosh dialect ||rowspan="2"| || rowspan="2" | || rowspan=2 | 'many' || rowspan=2 | Corresponds to in most other Assyrian dialects.
|-
|Tyari dialect
|-
|Bengali |||| || || 'again' || Phonetic realisation of /r/, especially in some Eastern Dialects and sometimes in conjunct before consonants. Corresponds to [ ~ ] in others. See Bengali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Burmese || || || 'furniture' || Occurs only in loanwords, mostly from Pali or English.
|-
|rowspan=3| Dutch || Central Netherlandic ||rowspan=2| ||rowspan=2| ||rowspan=2| 'through' ||rowspan=2| Allophone of in the syllable coda for some speakers. See Dutch phonology.
|-
| Western Netherlandic
|-
| Leiden || || || 'rat' || Corresponds to in other dialects.
|-
| rowspan="3" |German
| Moselle Franconian (Siegerland and Westerwald dialects)
| rowspan="3" ||| rowspan="3" |
| rowspan="3" |'vine'|| rowspan="3" | Most other dialects use a voiced uvular fricative , a uvular trill or an alveolar trill . See Standard German phonology.
|-
| Silesian
|-
| Upper Lusatian
|-
|colspan=2| Greek || /méra || || 'day' || Allophone of in rapid or casual speech and between vowels. See Modern Greek phonology.
|-
|colspan=2|Persian|||| ||'Persian'||Allophone of before /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /l/. See Persian phonology.
|-
| Portuguese || Multiple Brazilian dialects, mostly inland Centro-Sul || || || 'love' || Allophone of in the syllable coda. Velarized, may also be retroflex, post-alveolar and/or a rhotic vowel. See Portuguese phonology.
|-
| rowspan=5|Spanish || Andalusian || doscientos || || 'two hundred' || Allophone of before [θ]. See Spanish phonology.
|-
|Belizean||rowspan=3|invierno||rowspan=3|||rowspan=3|'winter'||rowspan=3|Possible realization of in the syllable coda due to English influence.
|-
|Caribbean Colombian
|-
|Puerto Rican
|-
|Costa Rican||carro||||'car'||Allophone of , and of before . See Costa Rican Spanish.
|-
| Swedish || Central (Stockholm area) || || || 'domain' || Allophone of , especially word-finally and post-vocalically. See Swedish phonology.
|-
|colspan=2| Tagalog || || || 'like-' || Allophone of the more usual and traditional flap or trill and is sometimes thus pronounced by some younger speakers due to exposure to mainstream English.
|-
| Turkish|| Marmara Region || || || 'excess, surplus' || Occurs as an allophone of in syllable coda, in free variation with post-alveolar . See Turkish phonology.
|-
| Vietnamese || Saigon || || || 'go out' || In free variation with , and . See Vietnamese phonology.
|-
| Zapotec || Tilquiapan || rdɨ || || 'pass' || Allophone of before consonants.
|}
<span class="anchor" id="Frictionless continuant"></span><span class="anchor" id="Spirant approximant"></span><span class="anchor" id="Laminal alveolar"></span>Non-rhotic alveolar
Some languages have a voiced (post)alveolar approximant that is acoustically distinct from a typical , which has variously been described as being '-like,' or 'non-sulcalized'. though other authors have reported sounds of this type as being explicitly apical. Somewhat less controversially, the distinction may also be made as a featural classing, between a 'rhotic approximant' and a 'spirant approximant' or 'frictionless continuant'. These two latter terms are now used synonymously, though both recall older terms with slightly different meanings; they are now defined as being non-rhotic, non-lateral, non-semivowel approximants.
The International Phonetic Alphabet has no symbol to represent this sound, but possible transcriptions with diacritics include (a lowered ) and (a lowered and retracted ), both of which have been used in literature. Several symbols have been proposed to represent this sound, but none have become widely accepted. In Sinological circles, the symbol has also been used for this sound, where it has often been referred to as an 'apical vowel'.
{| class="wikitable" style="clear: both;"
|-
! colspan="2" | Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| Danish || Standard || || || 'at' || Laminal and velarized; allophone of in the syllable coda.
|-
| Calabro
|-
| Salentino
|-
|colspan=2| Icelandic || || || 'a wallpaper' || Usually apical. In free variation with a weak fricative ; variably removed from the front teeth, up to (nearly) spot on . See Icelandic phonology.
|-
| Miyakoan || Irabu || colspan="2" style="text-align: center" | || 'father' || Realized as when word initial, geminate when presyllabic, variable when medial, and plain when word final. Phonemically transcribed as or . Devoiced to following a voiceless bilabial plosive .
|-
| car || || 'car' || Not labialized.
|-
|colspan=2| Faroese || || || 'a groin' || Ranges from post-alveolar to retroflex. More often realised as a fricative. See Faroese phonology.
|-
|colspan=2| Igbo || || || 'eat' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Malay
| /
|
|'hundred'
|More commonly trill [] or flap []. See Malay phonology
|-
| Maltese || Some dialects || || || 'quickly' || Corresponds to in other dialects. ||roro|| || 'to break into pieces' || Pre-stopped. Possible word-initial realization of .
See also
- Index of phonetics articles