The voiceless retroflex implosive is an extremely rare

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

al sound, used in very few spoken

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s. There is no official symbol in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

that represents this sound, but or may be used, or the old convention .

Features

Features of the voiceless retroflex implosive:

Occurrence

A rare and evidently unstable sound, has been described in Oromo of Ethiopia,Dissassa (1980
''Some aspects of Oromo phonology''
p. 10–11 and Ngiti of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

References

Works cited

* {{IPA navigation Retroflex consonants Implosives Voiceless oral consonants