phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

, liquids are a class of

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

s consisting of voiced lateral approximants like together with

rhotics In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. Th ...

like .

Etymology

The grammarian

Dionysius Thrax Dionysius Thrax ( grc-gre, Διονύσιος ὁ Θρᾷξ ''Dionýsios ho Thrâix'', 170–90 BC) was a Greek grammarian and a pupil of Aristarchus of Samothrace. He was long considered to be the author of the earliest grammatical text on the Gr ...

used the Ancient Greek word (, ) to describe the

sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels ar ...

consonants () of

classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

. Most commentators assume that this referred to their "slippery" effect on meter in classical Greek verse when they occur as the second member of a consonant cluster. This word was

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

d into

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

as , whence it has been retained in the Western European phonetic tradition.

Phonological properties

Liquids as a class often behave in a similar way in the phonotactics of a language: for example, they often have the greatest freedom in occurring in

consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...

Metathesis

Cross-linguistically, liquids are the consonants most prone to metathesis.

Spanish

In Spanish, /r/ is liable for metathesis. More specifically, /r/ and /l/ frequently switch places: * Lat. ''crocodīlus'' > Span. ''cocodrilo'' “crocodile” * Lat. ''mīrāculum'' > Span. ''milagro'' “miracle” * Lat. ''perīculum'' > Span. ''peligro'' “danger” * Lat. ''parabola'' > Span. ''palabra'' “speech”

English

''comfortable'' is frequently pronounced /ˈkʌmf.tɚ.bəl/ in rhotic varieties, although its stem, ''comfort'' is pronounced /ˈkʌm.fɚt/, with the rhotic /ɹ/ in its original position.

Dissimilation

Liquids are also prone to dissimilation when they occur in sequence.

Sequence r..r > l..r

* Latin '' peregrinus'' >

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

'' pelegrin'' (> )

Sequence l..l > r..l

* Italian '' colonello'' >

Middle French Middle French (french: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from t ...

'' coronnel'' This example of a relatively old case of phonetic dissimilation has been artificially undone in the spelling of English ''

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

'', whose standard pronunciation is (with the r sound) in North-American English, or in RP. It was formerly spelt ''coronel'' and is a borrowing from Middle French ''coronnel'', which arose as a result of dissimilation from Italian ''colonnello''.

Nucleus slot

Liquids are also the consonants most prone to occupying the nucleus slot in a syllable (the slot usually assigned to vowels). Thus Czech and other Slavic languages allow their liquid consonants and to be the center of their syllables – as witnessed by the classic tonguetwister "push (your) finger through (your) throat".

Areal distribution

Languages differ in the number and nature of their liquid consonants. Many languages, such as Japanese, Korean, or Polynesian languages (see below), have a single liquid

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...

that has both lateral and rhotic

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

has two liquid phonemes, one lateral, and one rhotic, , exemplified in the words ''led'' and ''red''. Many other European languages have one lateral and one rhotic phoneme. Some, such as Greek, Italian and

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

, have more than two liquid phonemes. All three languages have the set , with two laterals and one rhotic. Similarly, the

Iberian languages Iberian languages is a generic term for the languages currently or formerly spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. Historic languages Pre-Roman languages The following languages were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman occupation an ...

contrast four liquid phonemes. , , , and a fourth phoneme that is an alveolar trill in all but many varieties of Portuguese, where it is a uvular trill or fricative (also, the majority of Spanish speakers lack and use the central instead). Some European languages, for example Russian and Irish, contrast a palatalized lateral–rhotic pair with an unpalatalized (or velarized) set (e.g. in Russian). Elsewhere in the world, two liquids of the types mentioned above remains the most common attribute of a language's consonant inventory except in North America and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. In North America, a majority of languages do not have rhotics at all and there is a wide variety of lateral sounds though most are

obstruent An obstruent () is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well as ...

laterals rather than liquids. Most indigenous Australian languages are very rich in liquids, with some having as many as seven distinct liquids. They typically include dental, alveolar, retroflex and palatal laterals, and as many as three rhotics. On the other side, there are many indigenous languages in the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Boli ...

and eastern North America, as well as a few in Asia and Africa, with no liquids. Polynesian languages typically have only one liquid, which may be either a lateral or a rhotic. Non-Polynesian

Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

usually have both and , occasionally more (e.g. Araki has , , ) or less (e.g. Mwotlap has only ). Hiw is unusual in having a prestopped velar lateral as its only liquid..

References

{{Authority control Phonetics Phonology