Thevelopharyngeal fricatives, also known as theposterior nasal fricatives, are a family of sounds produced principally by people with acleft palate, as substitutes forsibilants (which in English are/s,z,ʃ,ʒ,tʃ,dʒ,tr,dr/). These are "the so-called 'nasal snort', in which (usually loud) friction results from leakage through a tense, but incompletely occluded,velopharyngeal port,"[1] and results from "the approximation but inadequate closure of the upper border of the velum and the posterior pharyngeal wall."[2] To produce a velopharyngeal fricative, the soft palate approaches thepharyngeal wall and narrows thevelopharyngeal port, such that the restricted port createsfricative turbulence in air forced through it into the nasal cavity. The articulation may be aided by a posterior positioning of the tongue and may involvevelar flutter (a snorting sound).[3][full citation needed][4]
The term 'velopharyngeal' indicates "articulation between the upper surface of the velum and the back wall of thenaso-pharynx."[5]
A velopharyngeal fricative trill or "snort" (much asepiglottal fricatives tend to be trilled):
voiceless[𝼀]
voiced[𝼀̬]
Other consonantsaccompanied by velopharyngeal frication, such as[s𐞐], potentially transcribed ⟨s𐞐𐞪⟩ to overtly indicate accompanying trill.
Velopharyngeal frication
◌𐞐
◌͌
The letter[𝼀] for the trill was only adopted in 2015; before then the letter ⟨ʩ⟩ had stood for both. Some authorities describe the trilled velopharyngeals as being accompanied byuvular trill rather than velar flutter. Whether this is a difference in interpretation or of pronunciation, it would be explicitly transcribed with a superscript⟨ʀ⟩: voiceless[ʩ𐞪] and voiced[ʩ̬𐞪].
^Ball, Martin J. (June 1991). "Computer Coding of the IPA: Extensions to the IPA".Journal of the International Phonetic Association.21 (1): 39.
^Duckworth, Martin; Allen, George; Hardcastle, William; Ball, Martin (1990). "Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet for the transcription of atypical speech".Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics.4 (4): 276.
