Voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills

The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonant. It is found in some spoken languages. It is usually called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R. The International Phonetic Alphabet letter for this sound is ⟨r⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is r.

Dictionaries of languages like English and German sometimes use the symbol ⟨r⟩. They have rhotic consonants that are not an alveolar trill. This is because typing the letter r is easier.

In many Indo-European languages, this sound is sometimes an allophone of the alveolar tap [ɾ]. This happens especially in unstressed syllables. Some languages like Catalan, Spanish, Albanian and some Portuguese treat these as two different sounds.

Features

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic. This means that this sound is produced by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
• The phonation is voiced. This means that the vocal cords vibrate while the sound is being pronounced.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is alveolar. This means that this sound is produced with the tip of the tongue (apical) or the blade of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (laminal).
• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is trill. This means that this sound is produced by directing air over the articulator so that it vibrates.
• It is an oral consonant. This means that air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant. This means that this sound is produced by directing the air along the center of the tongue, but not to the sides.

Examples

Voiced alveolar fricative trill

The voiced alveolar fricative trill is a type of consonant. It is found in some spoken languages. The International Phonetic Alphabet letter for this sound is ⟨r̝⟩. The X-SAMPA symbol for this sound is r_r.