Voiced pharyngeal fricative
Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʕ⟩ in IPA
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A voiced pharyngeal fricative or approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʕ⟩.
| Voiced pharyngeal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʕ | |||
| IPA number | 145 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity (decimal) | ʕ | ||
| Unicode (hex) | U+0295 | ||
| X-SAMPA | ?\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Although the official classification of manner for this sound in the IPA is a fricative, spectrographic and acoustic studies have found that it is most often realized as an approximant.[1] The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, as no language is known to make a phonemic distinction between voiced pharyngeal fricatives and approximants. For clarity, the approximant may be distinguished with the IPA diacritic for lowering, such as ⟨ʕ̞⟩.[2] Additionally, laryngoscopic studies by John Esling have shown the vowel ⟨ɑ⟩ to have distinct pharyngeal constriction and resonance in its articulation,[3] making ⟨ʕ̞⟩ the analogous semivowel of ⟨ɑ⟩. Esling furthers this notion in his expanded notation of the IPA chart; alongside merging pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants into a single column, he suggests that if it were spatially possible to align the vowel chart with the consonant chart, so that the relations between vowels and their semivowel counterparts are maintained (such as ⟨i⟩ below ⟨j⟩ and ⟨u⟩ below ⟨w⟩), then the vowels ⟨ɑ⟩ and ⟨ɒ⟩ should be placed under the combined pharyngeal/epiglottal column.[2]
The IPA letter ⟨ʕ⟩ is caseless. Capital ⟨⟩ and lower-case ⟨⟩ were added to Unicode in September 2025 with version 17.0.[4]
Features
Features of a 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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, 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 phoneme transcribed as ⟨ʕ⟩ for Arabic and standard Hebrew (though for most modern Hebrew speakers this has merged with a glottal stop) has been variously described as a voiced epiglottal fricative [ʢ], an epiglottal approximant [ʕ̞],[5] or a retracted tongue root glottal stop [ʔ̙].[6]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abaza | гӏапынхъамыз/g'apynkh"amyz | [ʕaːpənqaːməz] | 'March' | ||
| Afar | damaqtu | [dʌmʌʕtu] | 'male baboon' | ||
| Arabic | العَرَبٍيٌَة/al-ʽarabiyya | [ælʕɑrɑˈbɪj.jæ] | 'Arabic' | See Arabic phonology | |
| Aramaic | Eastern | ܬܪܥܐ/täroa | [tʌrʕɑ] | 'door' |
The majority of the speakers will pronounce the word as [tʌrɑ]. |
| Western | [tʌrʕɔ] | ||||
| Avar | гӀоркь/ⱨorꝗ/ﻋﻮٰرڨ | [ʕortɬʼː] | 'handle' | ||
| Chechen | Ӏан/jan/ﻋﺂن | ⓘ | 'winter' | ||
| Coeur d'Alene[7] | stʕin | [stʕin] | 'antelope' | ||
| Danish | Standard[8] | ravn | [ʕ̞ɑ̈wˀn] | 'raven' | An approximant;[8] also described as uvular [ʁ].[9] See Danish phonology |
| Dhao[10] | [ʕaa] | 'and' | Phonetic status is not clear, but it has "extremely limited distribution". It may not be pronounced at all or be realized as a glottal stop. | ||
| Dutch | Limburg[11] | rad | [ʕ̞ɑt] | 'wheel' | An approximant; a possible realization of /r/.[11] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology |
| German | Some speakers[12] | Mutter | ⓘ | 'mother' | An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol.[12] See Standard German phonology |
| Swabian dialect[13] | ändard | [ˈend̥aʕ̞d̥] | 'changes' | An approximant.[13] It's an allophone of /ʁ/ in nucleus and coda positions;[13] pronounced as a uvular approximant in onsets.[13] | |
| Hebrew | Iraqi | עִבְרִית/ʿivrît | [ʕibˈriːθ] | 'Hebrew language' | Generally pronounced as a glottal stop or silent by most Israelis. See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Sephardi | [ʕivˈɾit] | ||||
| Yemenite | ⓘ | ||||
| Ingush | ӏаддал | [ʕaddal] | 'Archer' | ||
| Judeo-Spanish | Haketia | Maˁarab | [maʕa'ɾaβ] | 'Morocco' | Only appears in Hebrew and Arabic loanwords. |
| Jerusalem | ʕasker | [ʕasˈkeɾ] | ‘army’ | Only appears in Hebrew and Arabic loanwords. | |
| Kabyle[14] | ɛemmi | [ʕəmːi] | 'my (paternal) uncle' | ||
| Kurdish | Kurmanji | ewr/'ewr | [ʕɜwr] | 'cloud' | The sound is usually not written in the Latin alphabet, but ⟨'⟩ can be used. |
| Khalaj | Standard | yâan | [jɑːɑ̯n] | 'side' | |
| Luwati | ﻗﻠﻌﺔ | [qilʕa] | 'castle' | Used in Arabic loanwords | |
| Malay | Kedah | باﮐﺮ/bakar | [ba.kaʕ] | 'to burn' | Corresponds to word-final /r/ in Standard Malay. Could be voiced velar fricative [ɣ] for some speakers.[15] Prevocalically and intervocalically, Standard Malay /r/ corresponds to /ʁ/ in Kedah Malay. See Kedah Malay |
| Maltese | għada | [ʕada] | 'tomorrow' | ||
| Mehri[16] | ﻋﻴﻦ/ʾāyn | [ʕajn] | 'eye' | ||
| Nuu-chah-nulth | ʕiiniƛ | [ʕiːnitɬ] | 'dog' | May be a plosive /ʡ/ | |
| Occitan | Southern Auvergnat[citation needed] | pala | [ˈpaʕa] | 'shovel' | See Occitan phonology |
| Okanagan[17] | ʕaymt | [ʕajmt] | 'angry' | ||
| Pilagá[18] | awoʕoik | [awoʕoik] | 'moon' | See Pilagá phonology | |
| Tarifit | ⵄⵉⵏⵉ/ɛini | [ʕini] | 'probably' | See Tarifit phonology | |
| Salish[19] | ʕámt | [ʕamt] | 'it's melted' | ||
| Shehri[20] | ﭘﻌﺐ/śaʿb | [ɬaʕb] | 'valley' | See Shehri phonology | |
| Sioux | Stoney | marazhud | [maʕaʒud] | 'rain' | |
| Somali[21] | 𐒋𐒛𐒒𐒙/caano | [ʕaːno] | 'milk' | See Somali phonology | |
| Soqotri[22] | أَﻋْﺮٞب/áˁreb | [aʕreb] | 'raven' | See Soqotri phonology | |
| U | [saχɔ̌ʕ] | 'tree bark' | Corresponded to proto-Palaungic */k/ or open back vowel */ɔʔ/.[23] | ||
| Ukrainian[citation needed] | голос | ⓘ | 'voice' | Also described as glottal [ɦ]. See Ukrainian phonology | |