Retroflex lateral approximant | |||
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ɭ | |||
IPA number | 156 | ||
Encoding | |||
Entity (decimal) | ɭ |
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Unicode (hex) | U+026D | ||
X-SAMPA | l` |
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Kirshenbaum | l. |
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Braille | |||
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Sound | |||
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The 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⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is l`.
The retroflex lateral approximant contrasts phonemically with its voiceless counterpart /ɭ̊/ in Iaai and Toda. In both of these languages it also contrasts with more anterior /l̥, l/, which are dental in Iaai and alveolar in Toda.
Features of the retroflex lateral approximant:
In the following transcriptions, diacritics may be used to distinguish between apical [ɭ̺] and laminal [ɭ̻].