Voiceless alveolar trill

Voiceless alveolar trill
r̥
IPA Number	122 402A
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
X-SAMPA	r_0

Some languages possess a voiceless alveolar trill, which differs only in the vibrations of the vocal cord. This is rare, and usually occurs alongside the voiced version as a similar phoneme or an allophone.

Proto-Indo-European *sr developed into a sound spelled ⟨ῥ⟩, with the letter for /r/ and the diacritic for /h/, in Ancient Greek. It was probably a voiceless alveolar trill, and became the regular word-initial allophone of /r/ in standard Attic Greek. This allophone has disappeared in Modern Greek.

• PIE *srew- > Ancient Greek ῥέω "flow" — possibly [r̥é.ɔː]

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar trill:

• Its manner of articulation is trill, which means it is produced by directing air over the articulator so that it vibrates.
• Its place of articulation is dental, alveolar or post-alveolar, which means it is articulated behind upper front teeth, at the alveolar ridge or behind the alveolar ridge. It is most often apical, which means that it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue.
• 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.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Alveolar

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Estonian					Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t, s, h/. See Estonian phonology
Icelandic		hrafn	[ˈr̥apn̥]	'raven'	Contrasts with /r/. For some speakers it may actually be a voiceless flap. Also illustrates [n̥]. See Icelandic phonology
Lezgian		крчар/krčar	[ˈkʰr̥t͡ʃar]	'horns'	Allophone of /r/ between voiceless obstruents
Limburgish	Hasselt dialect	geer	[ɣeːr̥]	'odour'	Possible word-final allophone of /r/; may be uvular [ʀ̥] instead.
Moksha		нархне	[ˈnar̥nʲæ]	'these grasses'	Contrasts with /r/: нарня [ˈnarnʲæ] "short grass". It has the palatalized counterpart /r̥ʲ/: марьхне [ˈmar̥ʲnʲæ] "these apples", but марьня [ˈmarʲnʲæ] "little apple"
Nivkh		р̌ы	[r̥ɨ]	'door'	Contrasts with /r/
Northern Qiang					Contrasts with /r/
Polish		krtań	[ˈkr̥täɲ̟]	'larynx'	Allophone of /r/ when surrounded by voiceless consonants, or word finally after voiceless consonants. See Polish phonology
Ukrainian		центр	[t̪͡s̪ɛn̪t̪r̥]	'centre'	Word-final allophone of /r/ after /t/. See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		Rhagfyr	[ˈr̥aɡvɨr]	'December'	Contrasts with /r/. See Welsh phonology
Zapotec	Quiegolani	rsil	[r̥sil]	'early'	Allophone of /r/.

Voiceless alveolar raised non-sonorant trill

Voiceless alveolar raised non-sonorant trill
r̝̊
IPA Number	122 402A 429
Encoding
X-SAMPA	r_0_r

It isn't known to occur as a phoneme in any language, but it does occur allophonically in Czech.

Features

Features of the voiceless alveolar raised non-sonorant trill:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative trill, which means it is a non-sibilant fricative and a trill pronounced simultaneously.
• Its place of articulation is laminal alveolar, which means it is articulated with the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge,
• 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.
• 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	Meaning	Notes
Czech		třista	[ˈt̪r̝̊ɪs̪t̪ä]	'three hundred'	Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants; may be a flap fricative instead. See Czech phonology
Norwegian	Areas around Narvik	norsk	[nɔr̝̊k]	'Norwegian'	Allophone of the sequence /ɾs/ before voiceless consonants.
	Some subdialects of Trøndersk
Polish	Some dialects	przyjść	[ˈpr̝̊ɘjɕt͡ɕ]	'to come'	Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants for speakers that don't merge it with /ʐ/. Present in areas from Starogard Gdański to Malbork and those south, west and northwest of them, area from Lubawa to Olsztyn to Olecko to Działdowo, south and east from Wieleń, around Wołomin, southeast from Ostrów Mazowiecka and west from Siedlce, from Brzeg to Opole and those north of them, and roughly from Racibórz to Nowy Targ. Most speakers, as well as standard Polish pronounce it the same as /ʂ/, and speakers maintaining the distinction (which is mostly the elderly) sporadically do that too.
Silesian	Gmina Istebna				Allophone of /r̝/ after voiceless consonants. It's pronounced the same as /ʂ/ in most Polish dialects
	Jablunkov

See also

• Index of phonetics articles