Voiced velar fricative

The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old English.^[1] The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɣ⟩, a Latinized variant of the Greek letter gamma, ⟨γ⟩, which has this sound in Modern Greek. It should not be confused with the graphically-similar ⟨ɤ⟩, the IPA symbol for a close-mid back unrounded vowel, which some writings^[2] use for the voiced velar fricative.

The symbol ⟨ɣ⟩ is also sometimes used to represent the velar approximant, which, however, is more accurately written with the lowering diacritic: [ɣ̞] or [ɣ˕]. The IPA also provides a dedicated symbol for a velar approximant, [ɰ].

There is also a voiced post-velar fricative, also called pre-uvular, in some languages. For the voiced pre-velar fricative, also called post-palatal, see voiced palatal fricative.

A voiced velar tapped fricative has been reported in Dàgáárè, which is a previously unattested sound in human language.

Features

Features of the voiced velar fricative:

Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
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.
Its 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

Some of the consonants listed as post-velar may actually be trill fricatives.

Notes

^ Baker, Peter Stuar (2012). Introduction to Old English (3rd ed.). pp. 15. ISBN 9781444354195. OCLC 778433078 – via Internet Archive. Between voiced sounds dotless g is pronounced [ɣ], a voiced velar spirant. This sound became [w] in Middle English, so English no longer has it.
^ Such as Booij (1999) and Nowikow (2012).
^ Watson (2002), pp. 17 and 19-20.
^ Watson (2002), pp. 17, 19–20, 35-36 and 38.
^ Hualde (1991), pp. 99–100.
^ Wheeler (2005), p. 10.
^ Angsongna, Alexander; Akinbo, Samuel (2022). "Dàgáárè (Central)". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 52 (2): 341–367. doi:10.1017/S0025100320000225. S2CID 243402135.
^ Verhoeven (2005:243)
^ a b c Collins & Mees (2003:191)
^ Watson, Kevin (2007). Illustrations of the IPA: Liverpool English (Cambridge University Press ed.). Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37. pp. 351–360.
^ Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 368. ISBN 0-521-24224-X.
^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.
^ a b Krech et al. (2009:108)
^ a b Sylvia Moosmüller (2007). "Vowels in Standard Austrian German: An Acoustic-Phonetic and Phonological Analysis" (PDF). p. 6. Retrieved March 9, 2013.^{[failed verification]}
^ a b Kachru (2006), p. 20.
^ Pop (1938), p. 30.
^ Okada (1999), p. 118.
^ Gabriel, Christoph; Gess, Randall; Meisenburg, Trudel, eds. (2021-11-22), Manual of Romance Phonetics and Phonology, De Gruyter, doi:10.1515/9783110550283, hdl:1983/44e3b3cd-164e-496b-a7a6-6b3a492e4c48, ISBN 978-3-11-055028-3, retrieved 2023-12-17
^ "Differential Impact of Arabic on Haketia and Turkish on Judezmo".
^ Gussenhoven & Aarts (1999:159)
^ Peters (2006:119)
^ R.E. Keller, German Dialects. Phonology and Morphology, Manchester 1960
^ Volpi, Luigi (2011). La lingua dei Masciaioli - Dizionario del dialetto di Accettua cittadina lucana in Prov. di Matera (in Italian). Potenza (Italy): EditricErmes. p. 92.^{[ISBN missing]}
^ a b Vanvik (1979), p. 40.
^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 92.
^ Mateus & d'Andrade (2000), p. 11.
^ Barbosa & Albano (2004), p. 228.
^ Jones, Daniel & Ward, Dennis (1969) The Phonetics of Russian. Cambridge University Press.
^ a b Landau et al. (1999:67)
^ Phonetic studies such as Quilis (1981) have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization
^ "685-686 (Nordisk familjebok / 1800-talsutgåvan. 17. V - Väring)". 1893.
^ a b Sjoberg (1963), p. 13.
^ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.

References

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Gussenhoven, Carlos; Aarts, Flor (1999), "The dialect of Maastricht" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 29 (2), University of Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies: 155–166, doi:10.1017/S0025100300006526, S2CID 145782045
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Mateus, Maria Helena; d'Andrade, Ernesto (2000), The Phonology of Portuguese, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-823581-X
Nowikow, Wieczysław (2012) [First published 1992], Fonetyka hiszpańska (3rd ed.), Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, ISBN 978-83-01-16856-8
Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0
Peters, Jörg (2006), "The dialect of Hasselt", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (1): 117–124, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002428
Pop, Sever (1938), Micul Atlas Linguistic Român, Muzeul Limbii Române Cluj
Quilis, Antonio (1981), Fonética acústica de la lengua española, Gredos, ISBN 9788424901325
Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659
Sjoberg, Andrée F. (1963), Uzbek Structural Grammar, Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 18, Bloomington: Indiana University
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Verhoeven, Jo (2005), "Belgian Standard Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 35 (2): 243–247, doi:10.1017/S0025100305002173
Watson, Janet C. E. (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press
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External links