Retroflexion

Retroflexion means curling the tongue back. It is not represented directly on the IPA chart, but it is an important feature of [vowel] + sequences in rhotic varieties, such as General American, Irish and Scottish English, where  is always pronounced after vowels. Any vowel sound can in principle be produced with retroflexion. The diacritic is  , added to the right of the vowel symbol. It is added mostly to the mid central vowels [ə] and . These stand for the vowels found in American English words like the second syllable of LETTER,  , and in the word nurse,  .