Velar consonant
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar
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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:
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 body
of the tongue have the freedom to move quickly enough to
produce a velar trill or flap.[3]
Lack of velars
The velar consonant [k] is the most common consonant in
human languages.[4]
Nonetheless, there are languages which lack simple velars.
An areal feature of the Pacific
Northwest coast is that historical *k has become palatalized
in many languages, in many languages becoming [kʲ],
but in others, such as Saanich,
Salish,
and Chemakun
becoming [tʃ].
(Likewise, historical *k’ has become [tʃʼ]
and historical *x has become [ʃ];
there was no *g or *ŋ.) However, all three languages
retain a labiovelar
series [kʷ],
[kʼʷ], [xʷ], [w], as well as a uvular
series.
Apart from [ɡ],
none of the other velars are particularly common, not even
[w]
and [ŋ],
which occur in English. [ɡ]
of course does not occur in languages like Mandarin
Chinese which lack voiced stops, but it is sporadically
missing elsewhere. About 10% of languages which otherwise
have [p
b t d k ɡ], such as Standard
Arabic, are missing [ɡ].[5]
The Pirahã
language has both a [k]
and a [ɡ]
phonetically. However, the [k]
does not behave as other consonants, and the argument has
been made that it is phonemically /hi/,
leaving Pirahã with only [ɡ]
as an underlyingly velar consonant. Hawaiian
does not distinguish [k]
from [t];
the sound spelled k tends toward [k]
at the beginnings of utterances, [t]
before [i],
and is variable elsewhere, especially in the dialect of
Niʻihau
and Kauaʻi.
Since Hawaiian has no [ŋ],
and w similarly varies between [w]
and labial [v],
it's not clear that it is meaningful to say that Hawaiian
has velar consonants.
Notes
References
See also
Consonants
This table contains phonetic
information in IPA,
which may not display correctly in some browsers.
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents
a voiced
consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations
judged to be impossible.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velar
Published - November 2008
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