Voiced pharyngeal fricative

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʕ⟩ in IPA
Voiced pharyngeal fricative
ʕ
IPA Number145
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)ʕ
Unicode (hex)U+0295
X-SAMPA?\
Braille⠖ (braille pattern dots-235)⠆ (braille pattern dots-23)
Image
Voiced pharyngeal approximant
ʕ̞
Image

The voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʕ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\. Epiglottals and epiglotto-pharyngeals are often mistakenly taken to be pharyngeal.

Although traditionally placed in the fricative row of the IPA chart, [ʕ] is usually an approximant. The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, but no language is known to make a phonemic distinction between fricatives and approximants at this place of articulation.

The IPA letter ʕ is caseless. Capital ⟨꟎⟩ and lower-case ⟨꟏⟩ are pending at Unicode U+A7CE and U+A7CF.

Features

Features of the voiced pharyngeal approximant fricative:

  • Its manner of articulation varies between approximant and fricative, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but generally not enough to produce much turbulence in the airstream. Languages do not distinguish voiced fricatives from approximants produced in the throat.
  • Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
  • Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
  • It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
  • It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
  • The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Capital letter ayin
Small letter ayin
Cased forms of the IPA letter in the Pilaga alphabet. They have been accepted by Unicode.

Pharyngeal consonants are not widespread. Sometimes, a pharyngeal approximant develops from a uvular approximant. Many languages that have been described as having pharyngeal fricatives or approximants turn out on closer inspection to have epiglottal consonants instead. For example, the candidate /ʕ/ sound in Arabic and standard Hebrew (not modern Hebrew – Israelis generally pronounce this as a glottal stop) has been variously described as a voiced epiglottal fricative, an epiglottal approximant,[1] or a pharyngealized glottal stop.[2]

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abaza гӀапынхъамыз/g'apynkh"amyz [ʕaːpənqaːməz] 'March'
Arabic اَلْـعَـرَبِيَّةُ/al-ʽarabiyya [alʕaraˈbijːa] 'Arabic' See Arabic phonology
Assyrian Eastern ܬܪܥܐ/täroa [tʌrʕɑ] 'door'

The majority of the speakers will pronounce the word as [tʌrɑ].

Western [tʌrʕɔ]
Avar гӀоркь/g'ork' [ʕortɬʼː] 'handle'
Chechen Ӏан/jan/عـآن [ʕan] 'winter'
Coeur d'Alene[3] stʕin [stʕin] 'antelope'
Danish Standard[4] ravn [ʕ̞ɑ̈wˀn] 'raven' An approximant;[4] also described as uvular [ʁ].[5] See Danish phonology
Dhao[6] [ʕaa] 'and' Phonetic status is not clear, but it has "extremely limited distribution". It may not be pronounced at all or be realized as a glottal stop.
Dutch Limburg[7] rad [ʕ̞ɑt] 'wheel' An approximant; a possible realization of /r/.[7] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
German Some speakers[8] Mutter [ˈmutɔʕ̞] 'mother' An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol.[8] See Standard German phonology
Swabian dialect[9] ändard [ˈend̥aʕ̞d̥] 'changes' An approximant.[9] It's an allophone of /ʁ/ in nucleus and coda positions;[9] pronounced as a uvular approximant in onsets.[9]
Hebrew Iraqi עִבְרִית/ʿivrît [ʕibˈriːθ] 'Hebrew language' See Modern Hebrew phonology
Sephardi [ʕivˈɾit]
Yemenite [ʕivˈriːθ]
Ingush Iаддал [ʕaddal] 'Archer'
Kabyle[10] ɛemmi [ʕəmːi] 'my (paternal) uncle'
Kurdish Kurmanji ewr/'ewr [ʕɜwr] 'cloud' The sound is usually not written in the Latin alphabet, but ⟨'⟩ can be used.
Luwati قلـعـة [qilʕa] 'castle' Used in Arabic loanwords
Malay Kedah باکـر/bakar [ba.kaʕ] 'burn' Allophone of /r/ as word-final coda. Could be voiced velar fricative [ɣ] for some speakers.[11]
Occitan Southern Auvergnat[citation needed] pala [ˈpaʕa] 'shovel' See Occitan phonology
Somali cunto/𐒋𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒙 [ʕuntɔ] 'food' See Somali phonology
Sioux Stoney marazhud [maʕazud] 'rain'
Ukrainian голос [ˈʕɔlos] 'voice' Also described as glottal [ɦ]. See Ukrainian phonology

See also

Citations

  1. ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
  2. ^ Thelwall (1990)
  3. ^ Doak, Ivy Grace (1997). Coeur d'Alene grammatical relations (PhD dissertation). Austin: University of Texas.
  4. ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:323)
  5. ^ Basbøll (2005:62)
  6. ^ Grimes, Charles E. (1999). Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono; Nasanius, Yassir (eds.). Implikasi penelitian fonologis untuk cara menulis bahasa-bahasa daerah di Kawasan Timur Indonesia [Implications from phonological research for ways of writing vernacular languages in eastern Indonesia] (PDF). PELBBA 12: Pertemuan Linguistik (Pusat Kajian) Bahasa dan Budaya Atma Jaya Kedua Belas (in Indonesian). Yogyakarta: Kanisius. pp. 173–197.
  7. ^ a b Collins & Mees (2003:201)
  8. ^ a b Dudenredaktion, Kleiner & Knöbl (2015:51)
  9. ^ a b c d Hiller, Markus. "Pharyngeals and 'lax' vowel quality" (PDF). Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-28. Retrieved 2015-02-24.
  10. ^ Bonafont (2006:9)
  11. ^ Mohamed, Noriah (June 2009). "The Malay Chetty Creole Language of Malacca: A Historical and Linguistic Perspective". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 82 (1 (296)): 60. JSTOR 41493734.

General references

  • Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-203-97876-5
  • Bonafont, Door Rosa (2006), Guia de conversa universitaria amazic-catala/Tamazight-Takatalant amalal usiwel asdawan, University of Barcelona, ISBN 9788447531141
  • Collins, Beverley; Mees, Inger M. (2003) [First published 1981], The Phonetics of English and Dutch (5th ed.), Leiden: Brill Publishers, ISBN 9004103406
  • Danylenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 9783929075083
  • Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962], Das Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (7th ed.), Berlin: Dudenverlag, ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
  • Thelwall, Robin (1990). "Arabic". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 20 (2): 37–41. doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266. S2CID 243640727.

External links

  • List of languages with [ʕ] on PHOIBLE
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IPA topics
IPA
Special topics
Encodings
Pulmonic consonants
Place Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal
Manner Bi­labial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Post­alveolar Retro­flex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn­geal/epi­glottal Glottal
Nasal m ɱ̊ ɱ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ̥ ɴ
Plosive p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Sibilant affricate ts dz t̠ʃ d̠ʒ
Non-sibilant affricate p̪f b̪v t̪θ d̪ð tɹ̝̊ dɹ̝ t̠ɹ̠̊˔ d̠ɹ̠˔ ɟʝ kx ɡɣ ɢʁ ʡʜ ʡʢ ʔh
Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ̼ ð̼ θ ð θ̠ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ɻ̊˔ ɻ˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ h ɦ
Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ ʔ̞
Tap/flap ⱱ̟ ɾ̼ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̆
Trill ʙ̥ ʙ r ɽ̊r̥ ɽr ʀ̥ ʀ ʜ ʢ
Lateral affricate tꞎ d𝼅 c𝼆 ɟʎ̝ k𝼄 ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ 𝼅 𝼆 ʎ̝ 𝼄 ʟ̝
Lateral approximant l ɭ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap ɺ̥ ɺ 𝼈̥ 𝼈 ʎ̆ ʟ̆

Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants
BL LD D A PA RF P V U EG
Ejective Stop ʈʼ ʡʼ
Affricate p̪fʼ t̪θʼ tsʼ t̠ʃʼ tʂʼ kxʼ qχʼ
Fricative ɸʼ θʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ χʼ
Lateral affricate tɬʼ c𝼆ʼ k𝼄ʼ q𝼄ʼ
Lateral fricative ɬʼ
Click
(top: velar;
bottom: uvular)
Tenuis


k𝼊
q𝼊

Voiced ɡʘ
ɢʘ
ɡǀ
ɢǀ
ɡǃ
ɢǃ
ɡ𝼊
ɢ𝼊
ɡǂ
ɢǂ
Nasal ŋʘ
ɴʘ
ŋǀ
ɴǀ
ŋǃ
ɴǃ
ŋ𝼊
ɴ𝼊
ŋǂ
ɴǂ
ʞ
 
Tenuis lateral
Voiced lateral ɡǁ
ɢǁ
Nasal lateral ŋǁ
ɴǁ
Implosive Voiced ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Voiceless ɓ̥ ɗ̥ ᶑ̊ ʄ̊ ɠ̊ ʛ̥
Co-articulated consonants
Labial–velar
ɧ
Sj-sound (variable)
Lateral approximant
Velarized alveolar
Labial–velar
Labial–alveolar
Other
Front Central Back
Close
•
•
Near-close
Close-mid
•
•
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
•
Open
•
•

Legend: unrounded  rounded