Trill consonant

The term vibrant (through English influence also trill, actually "trill", German also Schwinglaut or Zitterlaut) is used in phonetics to describe a consonant formed by a rapid sequence of short closure and closure release phases between the articulator (lower lip, tip of the tongue or uvula) and the place of articulation in the vocal tract. The movement of the articulators occur through an increased airflow, which means that the articulators perform the movements only passively.

This leads to a fluttering of the articulators and to air turbulence between the articulatory organ and the place of articulation. With the vibrating r sounds, one speaks colloquially of a rolled r.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the following characters are defined for vibrants:

• voiced bilabial vibrant [ʙ]: lower lip flutters against upper lip.

• Example: brr (interjection to express feeling cold)

• voiced alveolar vibrant [r]: tongue tip flutters against the dental crest or palate.

• Example: Spanish perro.

• voiceless alveolar vibrant [r̥]: like the voiced variety, but without vibrations of the vocal cords.

• Example: Welsh Rhagfyr.

• voiced uvular vibrant [ʀ]: uvula flutters against hind tongue.

• Example: Armenian տղա tgha "boy".

The German Zäpfchen-r is usually a voiced uvular fricative (Reibelaut) formed by a sound-producing constriction between the uvula and the back tongue. The "rolling" of this sound produces a uvular vibrant, which is common in some German dialects.