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Velar consonant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Places of articulation |
| Labial |
| Bilabial |
| Labial-velar |
| Labial-alveolar |
| Labiodental |
| Bidental |
| Coronal |
| Linguolabial |
| Interdental |
| Dental |
| Alveolar |
| Apical |
| Laminal |
| Postalveolar |
| Alveolo-palatal |
| Retroflex |
| Dorsal |
| Palatal |
| Labial-palatal |
| Velar |
| Uvular |
| Uvular-epiglottal |
| Radical |
| Pharyngeal |
| Epiglotto-pharyngeal |
| Epiglottal |
| Glottal |
| This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] |
| [Edit] |
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsum are not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the front depending on the quality of adjacent vowels. They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted before back vowels.
Palatalised velars (like English /k/ in keen or cube) are sometimes referred to as palatovelars. Many languages also have labialized velars, such as [kʷ], in which the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips. There are also labial-velar consonants, which are doubly articulated at the velum and at the lips, such as [k͡p]. This distinction disappears with the approximant [w], since labialization involves adding of a labial approximant articulation to a sound, and this ambiguous situation is often called labiovelar.
The velar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
| IPA | Description | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | Orthography | IPA | Meaning | ||
 |
velar nasal | English | ring | [ɹɪŋ] | ring |
 |
voiceless velar plosive | English | skip | [skɪp] | skip |
 |
voiced velar plosive | English | get | [ɡɛt] | get |
 |
voiceless velar fricative | German | Bauch | [baʊx] | abdomen |
 |
voiced velar fricative | Margi | ɣàfə́ | [ɣàfə́] | arrow |
 |
voiceless labial-velar approximant | English | which[1] | [ʍɪtʃ] | which |
 |
velar approximant | Spanish | pagar[2] | [paɰaɾ] | to pay |
 |
velar lateral approximant | Mid-Wahgi | aʟaʟe | [aʟaʟe] | dizzy |
 |
labial-velar approximant | English | witch | [wɪtʃ] | witch |
It is important to note at this point that a velar trill or tap is not possible - see the shaded boxes on the consonant table at the bottom. In the velar position the tongue has an extremely restricted ability to carry out the type of motion associated with trills or taps. Nor does the soft palate have the freedom to vibrate quickly to produce the uvular trill and hypothetically a uvular flap.[3]
- ^ In dialects that distinguish between which and witch.
- ^ Intervocalic g in Spanish often described instead as a very lightly articulated voiced velar fricative.[citation needed]
- ^ The International phonetic Alphabet
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| This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible. |
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