Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 7, 2026

Voiced retroflex lateral approximant

A voiced retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɭ ⟩.

Last revised
Jun 7, 2026
Read time
≈ 3 min
Length
776 w
Citations
13
Source
Voiced retroflex lateral approximant
ɭ
IPA number156
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)ɭ
Unicode (hex)U+026D
X-SAMPAl`
Braille⠲ (braille pattern dots-256)⠇ (braille pattern dots-123)

A voiced retroflex lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɭ ⟩.

A retroflex lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ɭ̊ / in Iaai and Toda.1 In both of these languages it also contrasts with more anterior /, l/, which are dental in Iaai and alveolar in Toda.1

Features

Features of a voiced retroflex lateral approximant:

Occurrence

In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ɭ̺] and laminal [ɭ̻].

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Bashkir ел [jɪ̞ɭ] 'wind' Apical retroflex lateral; occurs in front vowel contexts.
Dhivehi ފަޅޯ / falhoa [faɭoː] 'papaya' Represented by the Thaana letter ޅ (lhaviyani).
Enindhilyagwa marluwiya [maɭuwija] 'emu'
Faroese árla [ɔɻɭa] 'early' Allophone of /l/ after /ɹ/. See Faroese phonology
French Standard2 belle jambe [bɛɭ ʒɑ̃b] 'beautiful leg' Allophone of /l/ before /f/ and /ʒ/ for some speakers.2 See French phonology
Gujarati [nəɭə] 'tap' Represented by a . Pronounced as /ɭə/.3
Kannada ಎಳ್ಳು [ˈeɭːu] 'sesame' Represented by a
Katukina-Kanamari4 [ɭuːˈbɯ] 'to go'
Khanty Eastern dialects пуӆ [puɭ] 'bit'
Some northern dialects
Korean / sol [soɭ] 'pine' Represented by a . May also be pronounced as /l/.
Malayalam Malayalam script മലയാളം [mɐlɐjäːɭɐm] 'Malayalam' Represented by the letter . Sub apical retroflex. Long and short forms are contrastive word-medially56
Arabi Malayalam (Mapilla) مَلَیٰاۻَمْ‎
Mapudungun7 mara [ˈmɜɭɜ] 'hare' Possible realization of /ʐ/; may be [ʐ] or [ɻ] instead.7
Marathi बा [baːɭ] 'baby/child' Represented by a . Pronounced as /ɭə/. See Marathi phonology.
Miyako Irabu dialect 昼間
ピィルマ
[pɭːma] 'daytime' Allophone of /ɾ/ used everywhere except syllable-initially.
Norwegian Eastern and central dialects farlig [ˈfɑːɭi] 'dangerous' See Norwegian phonology
Odia [pʰɔɭɔ] 'fruit' Represented by a . Pronounced as /ɭɔ/.3
Parkari Koli واۮۯون [vaːɗaɭuːn] 'clouds'
Rajasthani [pʰəɭ] 'fruit' Represented by a ⟨ळ⟩.
Paiwan8 ladjap [ˈɭaɖap] 'lightning' or 'flash' See Paiwan phonology
Punjabi Gurmukhi ਤ੍ਰੇਲ਼ [t̪ɾeɭ] 'dew' Represented by a ਲ਼ and لؕ. Font support may be required to see the letter in Shahmukhi.
Shahmukhi تریلؕ
Swedish sorl [soːɭ] 'murmur' (noun) See Swedish phonology
Tamil9 ஆள் / اٰۻْ [äːɭ] 'person' Represented by a ள். See Tamil phonology
Telugu నీళ్ [niːɭ] 'water' Represented by a
Wu Chinese Northern Wu (Linping variety) /er2 [eɭ˩˧] 'conjunction (literary)' A rhotic consonant (cf. Changzhounese /ɦər˨˩˧/)
See also

See also

Notes

Notes

  1. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 198.
  2. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), p. 192.
  3. Masica (1991), p. 97.
  4. Anjos (2012), p. 128.
  5. Jiang (2010), pp. 16–17.
  6. "Malayalam: a Grammatical Sketch and a Text" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-05-30. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  7. Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 90.
  8. "ladjap". Online Aboriginal Language Dictionary (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation. Archived from the original on 2022-09-04. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  9. Keane (2004), p. 111.
References

References

External links