Voiced pharyngeal fricative

For consonants followed by superscript ˤ, see Pharyngealization.

Voiced pharyngeal fricative
ʕ
ʕ̝
IPA Number	145
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].

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.
• Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the central–lateral dichotomy does not apply.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs 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 of eastern European background 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	[ʕaːpənqaːməz]	'March'
Arabic	Egyptian	عامود	[ʕæˈmuːd]	'column'	See Egyptian Arabic phonology
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		tar'a	[tər'ʕɑː]	'door'	Only upheld in educated and religious speech. /ʕ/ is dropped by the majority of the speakers, who will utter the word as [tərɑː].
Avar		гӀоркь	[ʕortɬʼː]	'handle'
Berber	Kabyle	ɛemmi	[ʕəmːi]	'my (paternal) uncle'
Chechen		Ӏан / jan	<phonos file="ʕan.ogg">[ʕan]</phonos>	'winter'
Danish	Standard	ravn	[ʕ̞ɑʊ̯ˀn]	'raven'	An approximant; also described as uvular [ʁ]. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Limburg	rad	[ʕ̞ɑt]	'wheel'	An approximant. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
German	Swabian	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	[ʕibˈriːθ]	'Hebrew language'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi		<phonos file="He-Ivrit.ogg">[ʕivˈɾit]</phonos>
	Yemenite		<phonos file="Hebrew Language.ogg">[ʕivˈriːθ]</phonos>
Kurdish		‘ewr	[ʕæwr]	'cloud'	Both Sorani and Kurmanji dialects have this sound.
Marshallese		enana	[ɛ̯ɛnæ͡ɑʕnæ͡ɑʕ]	'it is bad'	See Marshallese phonology
Occitan	southern Auvergnat	pala	[ˈpaʕa]	'shovel'	See Occitan phonology
Portuguese	Fluminense	armando	[ɐʕˈmɜ̃du]	'arming'	In free variation with [ɣ], [ʁ] and [ɦ], before voiced consonants. Does not occur in onset position. See Portuguese phonology
Somali		caadi	<phonos file="ʕaːdi.ogg">[ʕaːdi]</phonos>	'normal'	See Somali phonology
Sioux	Stoney	marazhud	[maʕazud]	'rain'
Syriac	Turoyo	ܐܰܪܥܳܐ	[arʕo]	'Earth'	Tends to be absent from Eastern Syriac varieties.
Ukrainian		гора	[ʕoˈrɑ]	'mountain'	Also described as [ɦ]. See Ukrainian phonology

See also

• Voiced uvular fricative
• Index of phonetics articles
• Guttural