A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.

Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA):

IPA Description Example (Mishnaic Hebrew)
Orthography IPA Meaning
pharyngeal approximant עין [ˈʕaː.jin̪] the letter ʿáyin
voiceless pharyngeal fricative חית [ħeːθ] the letter ḥêṯ

Pharyngeals are known primarily from two areas of the world: in North-Africa/Mideast (in the Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Circassian, and Dagestanian families) and in British Columbia (in the Wakashan and Salish families). There are scattered reports of pharyngeals elsewhere, such as in the Nilo-Saharan Tama language and in Nenets in Northern Russia. In Finnish, a weak pharyngeal fricative is the realization of /h/ next to the vowel /a/, but since this is mere allophony, it is transcribed as /h/. According to the laryngeal theory, the Proto-Indo-European language might also have contained pharyngeal consonants.

Note that reported pharyngeals frequently turn out to be epiglottals. Such was the case for Dahalo and northern Haida, for example, and is likely to be true for many if not most of the others. This is perhaps because 'epiglottal' was only recently recognized as a distinct place of articulation, rather than a variant of 'pharyngeal'. The only language known to have contrastive pharyngeals and epiglottals is Agul, a Lezgian language of Dagestan.[citation needed]

Recently, a possible new place of articulation, epiglotto-pharyngeal, was reported.

See also

Consonants
List · Table
Pulmonics Bila​bial Labio​d. Den​tal Alv. Post. Retro​fl. Pal​a​tal Ve​lar Uvu​lar Pha​ryn. Epi​glot​t. Glot​tal
Nasals m ɱ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ
Plosives p b t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ
Fricatives ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ
Approxim. ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ
Trills ʙ r ʀ
Flaps / taps ⱱ̟ ɾ ɽ
Lateral Fric. ɬ ɮ
Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ ʟ
Non-pulmonics and other symbols [ • ]
Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ
Impl. ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ
Eject.
Affr. p̪͡f t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ ʈ͡ʂ ɖ͡ʐ t͡ɬ d͡ɮ
Other laterals ɺ ɫ
Co-art. fricatives ɕ ʑ ɧ
Co-art. approxim. ʍ w ɥ
Co-articulated stops k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This table 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 to be impossible.
See also IPA · Vowels

References

Categories: Consonants

 

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