Voiced pharyngeal fricative

For consonants followed by superscript ˤ, see Pharyngealization.

Voiced pharyngeal fricative
ʕ
IPA Number	145
Audio sample
File:Voiced pharyngeal fricative.ogg source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ʕ
Unicode (hex)	U+0295
X-SAMPA	?\
Braille
Image

Voiced pharyngeal approximant
ʕ̞
ɑ̯

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 approximant is sometimes specified as [ʕ̞] or as [ɑ̯], because it is the semivocalic equivalent of [ɑ].

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 diaphragm, as in most sounds.

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 /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, or a pharyngealized glottal stop.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		гӀапынхъамыз/g'apynkh"amyz	[ʕaːpənqaːməz]	'March'
Arabic		عَقْرَب/ʿaqrab	[ʕaqrab]	'scorpion'	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'
Ingush		Iаддал	[ʕaddal]	'Archer'
Chechen		Ӏан / jan	[ʕan]	'winter'
Coeur d'Alene		stʕin	[stʕin]	'antelope'
Danish	Standard	ravn	[ʕ̞ɑ̈wˀn]	'raven'	An approximant; also described as uvular [ʁ]. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Limburg	rad	[ʕ̞ɑt]	'wheel'	An approximant; a possible realization of /r/. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
French	Some speakers	rue	[ʕyː]	'street'	A possible allophone of /ʀ/.
German	Some speakers	Mutter	[ˈmutɔʕ̞]	'mother'	An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol. See Standard German phonology
	Swabian dialect	ändard	[ˈend̥aʕ̞d̥]	'changes'	An approximant. It's an allophone of /ʁ/ in nucleus and coda positions; pronounced as a uvular approximant in onsets.
Hebrew	Iraqi	עברית/i'vrit	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew language'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi		[ʕivˈɾit]
	Yemenite		[ʕivˈriːθ]
Kabyle		ɛemmi	[ʕəmːi]	'my (paternal) uncle'
Kurdish	Kurmanji	ewr	[ʕɜwr]	'cloud'	The sound is usually not written in the Latin alphabet, but ' can be used.
Luwati		قلعة	[qilʕa]	'castle'	Used in Arabic loanwords
Malay	Kedah	باکر / bakar	[ba.kaʕ]	'burn'	Allophone of /r/ as word-final coda. Could be voiced velar fricative [ɣ] for some speakers.
Occitan	Southern Auvergnat	pala	[ˈpaʕa]	'shovel'	See Occitan phonology
Somali		cunto	[ʕuntɔ]	'food'	See Somali phonology
Sioux	Stoney	marazhud	[maʕazud]	'rain'
Ukrainian		голос	[ˈʕɔlos]	'voice'	Also described as glottal [ɦ]. See Ukrainian phonology

See also

• Guttural
• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiced uvular fricative
• Glottal stop

General references

• Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, 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 978-0-631-19815-4.
• 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