The voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of
consonantal sound, used in some
spoken languages. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic transcription, phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standa ...
that represents this sound is , 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, is usually an
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
. The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, but no language is known to make a
phonemic distinction between
fricatives and
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
s at this place of articulation. The approximant is sometimes specified as or as , because it is the
semivocalic equivalent of .
Features
Features of the voiced pharyngeal approximant fricative:
Occurrence
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 sound in
Arabic and standard
Hebrew (not modern Hebrew – Israelis generally pronounce this as a
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
) has been variously described as a
voiced epiglottal fricative, an epiglottal approximant, or a
pharyngealized glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
.
See also
*
Guttural
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ejecti ...
*
Voiced uvular fricative
*
Glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
Citations
General references
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
{{IPA navigation
Pharyngeal consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Voiced oral consonants