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Abstract:
The term retroflex has a widespread use as a term for
describing the articulation of certain speechsounds. The
definitions mirror the latin meaning of the term, e.g. "A
retroflex articulation is one in which the tip of the tongue is
curled up to some extent" (Ladefoged & Maddieson
1996:25).Although this clearly is a term describing tongue
configuration, it is in most descriptions "for practical reasons"
placed among the terms for place of articulation, with a location
somewherebetween the (post)alveolar and palatal region, as
indicated for instance by its placement in the IPA table of
phonetic symbols.In this paper, we will question how useful and
appropriate the termretroflex is in its current usage,
exemplified through Norwegian. In Norwegian, there is a
distinctive opposition between two sets of coronal consonants
where the members of the first set aretraditionally referred to
as alveolar, while those in the second set are referred to as
retroflex. The articulation of these consonants, with particular
focus on the oral stops, have been investigatedthrough the use of
Electropalatography (Reading EPG 3) and Electromagnetic
Articulography (Carstens Articulograph). The investigation shows
that the so-called retroflex phonemes do notalways show a
retroflex tongue configuration. There is considerable variation,
inter- and intraindividually, both regarding tongue configuration
and regarding the contact area in the palate. Whatis distinctive
between the two sets of consonants is not whether the
articulation is retroflex or not, since the tongue tip is very
often not bent upwards or backwards during the articulation of
thesounds labelled retroflex. Nor is there a clearly distinctive
place of articulation in the roof of the mouth. As indicated also
by earlier EPG investigations of Norwegian (Moen & Simonsen
1997;1998) there is overlap concerning the area of contact
between the two sets of coronals. The alveolar consonants have
both alveolar and postalveolar contact, and for the allegedly
retroflex consonantsthe contact area varies widely from alveolar
to palatal, varying i.a. with the vowel context. What is
distinctive, however, is whether the articulation is apical or
laminal: the so-called retroflexconsonants are all apical and the
so-called alveolar consonants are all laminal.
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