Retroflex consonants, like other
coronal consonants, come in several varieties, depending on the shape of the tongue. The tongue may be either flat or concave, or even with the tip curled back. The point of contact on the tongue may be with the
tip (), with the
blade (), or with the underside of the tongue (). The point of contact on the roof of the mouth may be with the
alveolar ridge (), the area behind the alveolar ridge (), or the
hard palate (). Finally, both
sibilant ( or ) and nonsibilant (, , , ) consonants can have a retroflex articulation. The greatest variety of combinations occurs with sibilants, as small changes in
tongue shape and position cause significant changes in the resulting sound. Retroflex sounds generally have a duller, lower-pitched sound than other alveolar or postalveolar consonants, with subapical palatals being the most extreme and lowest pitched. The main combinations normally observed are: • Laminal post-alveolar, with a flat tongue. These occur, for example, in
Polish cz, sz, ż (rz), dż. • Apical post-alveolar, with a somewhat concave tongue. These occur, for example, in
Mandarin zh, ch, sh, r,
Hindi and most other
Indo-Aryan languages, and most
Australian languages. • Subapical palatal, with a highly concave tongue, which occur particularly in the
Dravidian languages and some
Indo-Aryan languages. They are the dullest and lowest-pitched type and, after a vowel, often add strong
r-coloring to the vowel and sound as if an
American English r occurred between the vowel and consonant. They are not a place of articulation, as the IPA chart implies, but a shape of the tongue analogous to laminal and apical. Subapical sounds are sometimes called "true retroflex" because of the curled-back shape of the tongue, and the other sounds sometimes go by other names. For example,
Ladefoged and
Maddieson prefer to call the laminal post-alveolar sounds "flat post-alveolar".
Other sounds Retroflex sounds must be distinguished from other consonants made in the same parts of the mouth: • the
palato-alveolar consonants (e.g., ), such as the
sh,
ch and
zh occurring in
English words like
ship,
chip and
vision • the
alveolo-palatal consonants (e.g., ), such as the
j, q and
x occurring in
Mandarin Chinese • the
dorsal palatal consonants (e.g., ), such as the
ch in
German ich or the
ñ in
Spanish año • the
grooved alveolar consonants (e.g., ), such as the
s and
z occurring in
English words like
sip and
zip The first three types of sounds above have a convex tongue shape, which gives them an additional
secondary articulation of
palatalization. The last type has a groove running down the center line of the tongue, which gives it a strong hissing quality. The retroflex sounds, however, have a flat or concave shape, with no associated palatalization, and no groove running down the tongue. The term "retroflex", in fact, literally means "bent back" (concave), although consonants with a flat tongue shape are commonly considered retroflex as well. The
velar bunched approximant found in northern varieties of
Dutch and some varieties of
American English is acoustically similar to the retroflex approximant. It is articulated with the body of the tongue bunched up at the velum. ==Transcription==