ʈʰ vs ɖ

Voiceless Retroflex Stop vs Voiced Retroflex Stop

How these sounds differ

ʈʰ

Voiceless Retroflex Stop

Voicing: voiceless
Place: retroflex
Manner: stop
Class: consonant
In languages: 29 / 500

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Voiced Retroflex Stop

Voicing: voiced
Place: retroflex
Manner: stop
Class: consonant
In languages: 48 / 500

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Cross-linguistic distribution

Languages with ʈʰ

Languages with both

Languages with ɖ

27 languages in our database contrast both sounds as distinct phonemes. Languages that have one but not the other tend to merge them into a single phoneme — meaning speakers of those languages often struggle to hear the distinction when learning a language that contrasts them.

Has ʈʰ, not ɖ (2)

Kharia Austroasiatic Cham Austronesian

Has ɖ, not ʈʰ (20)

PAIWAN Austronesian BEJA Afro-Asiatic Brahui Dravidian DIYARI Pama-Nyungan RUKAI Austronesian Koya Dravidian LELEMI Atlantic-Congo MABA Maban MORO Heibanic Kota Dravidian Iai Austronesian Awiya Afro-Asiatic Pashto Indo-European Tamil Dravidian Javanese Austronesian Sinhalese Indo-European Santali Austroasiatic Norwegian Indo-European Fɔn Atlantic-Congo TULU Dravidian