nonretroflex

Nonretroflex is a term used in phonetics and phonology to describe consonants that are not articulated with the tongue curled upward toward the postalveolar region (retroflex). It is a broad descriptive label rather than a single phonological feature, applying to a wide variety of non-retroflex articulations.

As a category, nonretroflex includes consonants produced at several places of articulation and by different manners. Common places of articulation in the nonretroflex group include bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal. Manner of articulation can be stops, fricatives, nasals, liquids, or approximants, among others. The key commonality is that these sounds do not involve curling the tongue tip back toward the palate in the retroflex position.

Nonretroflex is particularly relevant in languages that contrast retroflex consonants with nonretroflex ones. In such languages, a retroflex series (for example, retroflex stops or fricatives) is phonemic alongside a nonretroflex series (such as alveolar or palatal stops or fricatives). This contrast is notably documented in several Indian languages and some Dravidian languages, where retroflex phonemes coexist with nonretroflex counterparts.

The term is chiefly used as a neutral, descriptive shorthand in linguistic analysis rather than as a defined phonetic category with a single articulatory feature. It helps to distinguish sounds that are not produced with the retroflex tongue configuration from those that are. As such, nonretroflex encompasses a broad array of articulations unified only by the absence of retroflexion.