Voiced pharyngeal fricative

IPA Unicode 0x0295

Voiced Pharyngeal Fricative

The voiced pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that represents this sound is ⟨ʕ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is '>. This sound is characterized by its production in the pharynx; it is a fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.

Characteristics

The voiced pharyngeal fricative is produced by constricting the pharynx between the root of the tongue and the back of the throat. The voicing of this fricative means that the vocal cords vibrate during its production. It is a relatively uncommon sound worldwide and is found in languages such as Arabic and some Berber languages.

Articulation

The articulation of the voiced pharyngeal fricative involves the following steps:

• The pharyngeal cavity is constricted by retracting the root of the tongue and moving it closer to the back wall of the throat.
• The vocal cords vibrate to produce voicing.
• Air is forced through the narrow constriction, creating a turbulent airflow that results in the fricative sound quality.

Occurrence

This sound is not widespread among the world's languages. It is most notably present in:

• Arabic, where it is represented by the letter ⟨ع⟩ (ʿAyn).
• Certain Berber languages, where its presence is part of the phonetic inventory that distinguishes them from other languages.
• Some dialects of Hebrew historically, though modern Hebrew has largely lost this sound.

Phonetic and Phonological Features

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by forcing air through a narrow channel.
• Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.
• It is a voiced sound, meaning the vocal cords vibrate during its articulation.

See Also

• Pharyngeal consonant
• Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
• International Phonetic Alphabet
• Manner of articulation
• Place of articulation