| Voiced velar approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ɰ | |||
| ɣ | |||
| IPA number | 154 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ɰ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0270 | ||
| X-SAMPA | M\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
Avoiced velar approximant is a type ofconsonantal sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɰ⟩. In order to not imply that the approximant isspread as the vowel[ɯ] is, it may instead be transcribed ⟨ɣ̞⟩ or ⟨ɣ⟩ (or ⟨ɣ˕⟩, which is now dated). This is the symbol of thevoiced velar fricative ⟨ɣ⟩ with alowering diacritic.
This consonant is absent from English, but may be approximated by making[ɡ] but with the tongue body lowered or[w] but with the lips apart. The voiced velar approximant can in many cases be considered thesemivocalic counterpart of theclose back unrounded vowel[ɯ]. ⟨ɰ⟩ and ⟨ɯ̯⟩ with the non-syllabic diacritic are used in differenttranscription systems to represent the same sound.
In some languages, such asSpanish, a voiced velar approximant is anallophone of/ɡ/ – seebelow.
For avoiced post-palatal approximant—sometimes also described as avoiced pre-velar approximant—which is more fronted in the place of articulation than a prototypical velar approximant, seeVoiced palatal approximant § Post-palatal.
Features of a voiced velar approximant:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aragonese[1] | caixigo | [kajˈʃiɣ̞o̞] | 'oak tree' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/. | |
| Astur-Leonese | Asturian | [example needed] | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/. | ||
| Extremaduran | [example needed] | ||||
| Leonese | [example needed] | ||||
| Mirandese | [example needed] | ||||
| Catalan[2][3] | aigua | [ˈajɣ̞wə]ⓘ | 'water' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/.[2][3] SeeCatalan phonology | |
| Cherokee | ᏩᏥwa-tsi | [ɰad͡ʒi] | 'watch' | Found only in the Western dialect. Its equivalent in other dialects is [w]. Also represented by Ꮺ, Ꮻ, Ꮼ, Ꮽ, and Ꮾ | |
| Danish | Older speakers[4] | talg | [ˈtsʰalˀɣ̞] | 'tallow' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Still used by some older speakers in high register, much more commonly than a fricative[ɣ].[4] Depending on the environment, it corresponds to[w] or[j] in young speakers of contemporary Standard Danish.[5] SeeDanish phonology |
| Dutch | WesternEast Flemish[6] | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Corresponds to a fricative[ɣ] in other dialects.[6] | |||
| French | Belgian[7] | ara | [aɣ̞a] | 'macaw' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Intervocalic, word-internal allophone of/ʀ/ for some speakers.[7] SeeFrench phonology |
| Galician[8] | órgano | [ˈɔrɣ̞ɑ̟nʊ]ⓘ | 'organ' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/.[8] SeeGalician phonology | |
| Greek | Cypriot[9] | μαγαζί | [maɰazˈzi] | 'shop' | Allophone of/ɣ/. |
| Guarani | gotyo | [ɰoˈtɨo] | 'near, close to' | Contrasts with[w] | |
| ÑandewaPaulista-Paranaense[10] | [adʒaˈɰa] | 'I cut' | Contrasts with[ɡ].[10] | ||
| Hiw | wr̄og | [wɡ͡ʟɔɣ̞] | 'through' | Contrasts with/w/ and with/ɡ͡ʟ/.[11] | |
| Ibibio[12] | ufokọ | [úfʌ̟̀ɰɔ̞] | [translation needed] | Intervocalic allophone of/k/; may be a uvular tap[ɢ̆] instead.[12] | |
| Icelandic | Skagabyggð | [ˈskɐːɣ̞ɐˌpɪɣ̞θ]ⓘ | 'Skagabyggð' | Approximant consonant[13] unspecified for rounding.[citation needed] SeeIcelandic phonology | |
| Irish | naoi | [n̪ˠɰiː]ⓘ | 'nine' | Occurs only between broad consonants andfront vowels. SeeIrish phonology | |
| Korean | 의사 /uisa | [ɰisɐ] | 'doctor' | Occurs only before/i/. SeeKorean phonology | |
| Mwotlap | haghag | [haɣ̞haɣ̞] | 'sit' | Contrasts with[w].[14] | |
| Shipibo[15] | igi | [i̞ɣ̞i̞] | [translation needed] | Unspecified for rounding; varies between an approximant and a fricative. Allophone of/k/ in certain high-frequency morphemes.[15] | |
| Spanish[16] | pagar | [päˈɣ̞äɾ]ⓘ | 'to pay' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/.[16] SeeSpanish phonology | |
| Swedish | Central Standard[17] | temadagarna | [ˈtʰîɛ̠mɐˌdɒ̟ːɣæɳɐ̞]ⓘ | 'themed day' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of/ɡ/ in casual speech. SeeSwedish phonology |
| Tagalog | igriega | [iːɡɾɪˈje̞ɣ̞ɐ] | 'y (letter)' | Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; intervocalic allophone of/ɡ/. SeeTagalog phonology | |
| Tiwi | ngaga | [ˈŋaɰa] | 'we (inclusive)' | ||
| Vietnamese | Southern | gặp | [ɣ̞ap̚˨˩˨]ⓘ | 'to meet, to see' | Typical realization of/ɡɣ/or/ɣ/ in other dialects. Variant is in complementary distribution before open vowels. |
| Nasalized voiced velar approximant | |
|---|---|
| ɰ̃ | |
| ɣ̃˕ | |
| Audio sample | |
Anasalized voiced velar approximant is a type ofconsonantal sound used in some spokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is typically ⟨ɰ̃⟩ or ⟨ɣ̞̃⟩.
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guaraní | Paraguayan | guaraníme | [ɰ̃ʷãɾ̃ãˈnĩmẽ] | 'in Guarani' | Allophone of/ɰ/ due to nasalvowel-consonant harmony, though typically retains some degree oflabialization; may therefore be closer to[w̃].[18][19] |
| Japanese | 三位 /san'i | [sɑ̃ɰ̃ːi] | 'third rank' | Syllable-finalmoraic nasal realization; broadly described as dorso-velar, though exact placement of articulation varies.[20] SeeJapanese phonology | |
| Nizaa | ŋun | [ɰ̃ʊ˧n] | 'boy/girl' | Non-syllable coda realization of[ŋ].[21] SeeNizaa phonology. | |
| Ikwerre | [àˈɣ̞̃ã́] | 'to bask in the sun' | Allophone of/ɣ̞/ before nasal vowels, due to nasalvowel-consonant harmony.[22] | ||
| Voiced velar bunched approximant | |
|---|---|
| ɹ̈ | |
| Encoding | |
| X-SAMPA | r\_" |
Some languages have a velar approximant that is produced with the body of the tongue bunched up at the velum and simultaneouspharyngealization. This gives rise to a type ofretroflex resonance that is indistinguishable from[ɻ].[23] Theextension to the IPA recommends the use of the "centralized" diacritic, ⟨ɹ̈⟩, to distinguish the bunched realization from the apical articulation ⟨ɹ̺⟩. Typically, the diacritic is omitted, so that the sound is transcribed simply with ⟨ɹ⟩ or ⟨ɻ⟩ as if it were acoronal consonant.
In Dutch, this type ofr is calledGooise r[ˌɣoːisəˈʔɛr] 'Gooir'. It is named afterhet Gooi, a region of the Netherlands whereHilversum (the main centre for television and radio broadcasting) is located. One source is quoted as claiming a typical realization of this sound (in particular, the further back uvular[ʁ]) as apre-uvular approximant[ʁ̞˖].[24]
Features of a voiced velar bunched approximant:
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Randstad varieties[23] | maar | [ˈmaːɹ̈] | 'but' | Common allophone of/r/ in the syllablecoda, where it contrasts with[w]. The bunching and pharyngealization may be lost in connected speech, resulting in a semivowel such as[j] or[ə̯].[25] SeeDutch phonology |
| Standard Northern[23] | |||||
| English | American[26] | red | [ɹ̈ʷɛd] | 'red' | Possible realization of/r/; auditorily indistinguishable from apical[ɹ̺].[26] SeePronunciation of English /r/ |
| Received Pronunciation[26] | curious | [ˈkj̊ʊːɹ̈iəs] | 'curious' | ||
Some languages have a voiced velar approximant that is unspecified for rounding, and therefore cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either[ɯ] or its rounded counterpart[u]. Examples of such languages areCatalan,Galician andSpanish, in which the approximantconsonant (notsemivowel) unspecified for rounding appears as an allophone of/ɡ/.[8]
Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the voiced velar approximant consonant as follows:[27]
As for the symbol ⟨ɰ⟩, it is quite evidently inappropriate for representing the Spanish voiced velar approximant consonant. Many authors have pointed out the fact that[ɰ] is not rounded; for example, Pullum & Ladusaw (1986:98) state that 'the sound in question can be described as a semi-vowel (glide) with the properties "high", "back", and "unrounded"'. They even establish an interesting parallelism: 'the sound can be regarded as an unrounded[w]'. It is evident, then, that ⟨ɰ⟩ is not an adequate symbol for Spanish. First of all, because it has never been taken into consideration that there is a diphthong in words likepaga 'pay',vago 'lazy',lego 'lay', etc., and, secondly, because this sound is rounded when it precedes rounded vowels. Besides, it would be utterly wrong to transcribe the wordjugo 'juice' with ⟨ɰ⟩ *[ˈχuɰo], because the pronunciation of that consonant between two rounded vowels is completely rounded whereas[ɰ] is not. [...]
The symbol I have always proposed is ⟨ɣ̞⟩, the correlate to the other central approximants in Spanish,[β̞ð̞] (Martínez Celdrán 1991, 1996:47). This coincides with Ball & Rahilly (1999:90), whose example for the three approximants is the Spanish wordabogado 'lawyer'[...]. Ball & Rahilly too criticise in a footnote the confusion between these symbols: 'The difference between an approximant version of thevoiced velar fricative[ɣ], and the velar semi-vowel[ɰ] is that the latter requires spread lips, and must have a slightly more open articulatory channel so that it becomes[ɯ] if prolonged' (p. 189, fn. 1).
There is a parallel problem with transcribing thepalatal approximant.
In broad transcription,[28] thelowering diacritic may be omitted, so that the symbol is rendered ⟨ɣ⟩ as with the corresponding fricative.
Mees and Collins (1982) claim alveolarr is most usually a tap or a weak fricative in Standard Dutch, not a trill. They specifically mentionGooise r, as the coda variant for both alveolar and uvularr speakers of Standard Dutch in the Netherlands. They further mention reduction variants, such as a close schwa-like or, after non high vowels,[ɾ]-like glide. Uvularr is claimed to be usually realised as a pre-uvular approximant in onset positions:[ʁ̞˖], while voiceless, non-trilled uvular fricatives are associated with upper socially-marked or affected varieties of Northern Standard Dutch (1982:10).
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