Puneet Varma (Editor)

Lateral flap

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A lateral flap is a family of consonantal sounds, used in some spoken languages.

There are four attested or claimed lateral flaps in the world's languages:

  • The alveolar lateral flap ɺ is quite common.
  • A retroflex lateral flap is found throughout South Asia, from Pashtun to Oriya, in the Iwaidjan languages of Australia, and sporadically elsewhere.
  • A palatal lateral flap ʎ̮ has been described from Iwaidja, but may be a palatalized alveolar flap.
  • A velar lateral flap ʟ̆ occurs allophonically in Melpa and a few other languages of New Guinea.

    • Features

    Features of lateral flap:

  • Its manner of articulation is flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
  • 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.

    • References

    Lateral flap Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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