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Voiced dental and alveolar lateral flaps

Consonantal sounds represented by ⟨ɺ⟩ in IPA

Voiced alveolar lateral flap
ɺ
IPA Number	181
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɺ
Unicode (hex)	U+027A
X-SAMPA	l\
Braille
Image

The voiced alveolar lateral flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɺ⟩, a fusion of a rotated lowercase letter ⟨r⟩ with a letter ⟨l⟩. Approved in 1928, the symbol represented a sound intermediate between [d] and [l]^[1][2] or between [r] and [l]^[3][4] until 1979 when its value was redefined as an alveolar lateral flap.^[5]

Some languages that are described as having a lateral flap actually have a flap that is indeterminate with respect to centrality, and may surface as either central or lateral, either in free variation or allophonically depending on surrounding vowels and consonants.^[6]

Features of the voiced alveolar lateral flap:

• Its manner of articulationistap 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 articulationisalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge, termed respectively apical and laminal.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
• The airstream mechanismispulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

• Index of phonetics articles
• Perception of English /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers

• List of languages with [ɺ]onPHOIBLE