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Glite Dictionary
👅 Tongue bending back ↩️ Body part bending back
retroflection

retroflection

9.9
A movement that turns the tongue tip back toward the roof of the mouth when speaking
  • noun
  • /ˌrɛtroʊˈflɛkʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : retroflexión
  • Some speech therapists teach exercises to help with retroflection in certain sounds.

Examples

  • The linguist demonstrated how retroflection changes the quality of a consonant.

  • In Hindi, the letter 'ट' is pronounced with retroflection of the tongue.

  • The teacher explained the concept of retroflection during the phonetics class.

  • Can you demonstrate retroflection for us?

  • In Hindi, the letter 'ट' is pronounced with retroflection of the tongue.

  • Some speech therapists teach exercises to help with retroflection in certain sounds.

  • The linguist demonstrated how retroflection changes the quality of a consonant.

Synonyms

retroflexion
vsretroflection
  • Specialized
9.9

Turning the tip of the tongue back against the roof of the mouth to make certain speech sounds

is used specifically to make certain consonant sounds rather than general speech sounds

Surface Forms

retroflection singular
retroflections plural

Morphology

retroflection = reflection (semi-transparent) = retro + flect + ion

The prefix 'retro-' indicates a backward action, but the specific phonetic application is specialized.

Etymology

Retroflection comes from retro- 'back' and flect 'bend', the same parts you see in reflect and flex. So in speech it means bending the tip of the tongue back toward the roof of the mouth, which helps you remember how the sound is made.