| Voiced pharyngeal fricative | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʕ | |||
| IPA number | 145 | ||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| Entity(decimal) | ʕ | ||
| Unicode(hex) | U+0295 | ||
| X-SAMPA | ?\ | ||
| Braille |   | ||
| |||
| Voiced pharyngeal approximant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ʕ̞ | |||
| Audio sample | |||
| Encoding | |||
| X-SAMPA | ?\_o | ||
| |||
Avoiced pharyngeal fricative orapproximant is a type ofconsonantal sound, used in somespokenlanguages. The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʕ⟩.
Although the official classification ofmanner for this sound in the IPA is africative,spectrographic andacoustic studies have found that it is most often realized as anapproximant.[1] The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, as no language is known to make aphonemic distinction between voiced pharyngeal fricatives and approximants. For clarity, the approximant may be distinguished with the IPA diacritic forlowering, such as ⟨ʕ̞⟩.[2] Additionally,laryngoscopic studies byJohn Esling have shown the vowel ⟨ɑ⟩ to have distinctpharyngeal constriction and resonance in its articulation,[3] making ⟨ʕ̞⟩ the analogoussemivowel of ⟨ɑ⟩. Esling furthers this notion in his expanded notation of the IPA chart; alongside merging pharyngeal andepiglottal consonants into a single column, he suggests that if it were spatially possible to align thevowel 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 toUnicode in September, 2025 with version 17.0.[4]
Features of a voiced pharyngeal approximant fricative:
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 haveepiglottal consonants instead. For example, the candidate/ʕ/ sound inArabic and standardHebrew (not modern Hebrew – Israelis generally pronounce this as aglottal stop) has been variously described as avoiced epiglottal fricative[ʢ], an epiglottal approximant[ʕ̞],[5] or apharyngealizedglottal stop[ʔˤ].[6]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abaza | гӏапынхъамыз/g'apynkh"amyz | [ʕaːpənqaːməz] | 'March' | ||
| Afar | damaqtu | [dʌmʌʕtu] | 'male baboon' | ||
| Arabic | اَﻟْﻌَﺮَبِيَّةُ/al-ʽarabiyya | [alʕaraˈbijːa] | 'Arabic' | SeeArabic 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 | [ʕan]ⓘ | 'winter' | ||
| Coeur d'Alene[7] | stʕin | [stʕin] | 'antelope' | ||
| Danish | Standard[8] | ravn | [ʕ̞ɑ̈wˀn] | 'raven' | An approximant;[8] also described as uvular[ʁ].[9] SeeDanish 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 aglottal stop. | ||
| Dutch | Limburg[11] | rad | [ʕ̞ɑt] | 'wheel' | An approximant; a possible realization of/r/.[11] Realization of/r/ varies considerably among dialects. SeeDutch phonology |
| German | Some speakers[12] | Mutter | [ˈmutɔʕ̞]ⓘ | 'mother' | An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol.[12] SeeStandard German phonology |
| Swabian dialect[13] | ändard | [ˈend̥aʕ̞d̥] | 'changes' | An approximant.[13] It's an allophone of/ʁ/ innucleus andcoda positions;[13] pronounced as auvular approximant inonsets.[13] | |
| Hebrew | Iraqi | עִבְרִית/ʿivrît | [ʕibˈriːθ] | 'Hebrew language' | SeeModern Hebrew phonology |
| Sephardi | [ʕivˈɾit] | ||||
| Yemenite | [ʕivˈriːθ]ⓘ | ||||
| Ingush | ӏаддал | [ʕaddal] | 'Archer' | ||
| Judeo-Spanish[14] | Haketia | Maˁarab | [maʕa'ɾaβ] | 'Morocco' | Only appears in Hebrew and Arabic loanwords. |
| Kabyle[15] | 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.[16] Prevocalically and intervocalically, Standard Malay/r/ corresponds to/ʁ/ in Kedah Malay. SeeKedah Malay |
| Maltese | għadacode: mlt promoted to code: mt | [ʕada] | 'tomorrow' | ||
| Mehri[17] | ﻋﻴﻦ/ʾāyn | [ʕajn] | 'eye' | ||
| Nuu-chah-nulth | ʕiiniƛ | [ʕiːnitɬ] | 'dog' | May be aplosive/ʡ/ | |
| Occitan | SouthernAuvergnat[citation needed] | pala | [ˈpaʕa] | 'shovel' | SeeOccitan phonology |
| Okanagan[18] | ʕaymt | [ʕajmt] | 'angry' | ||
| Pilagá[19] | awoʕoik | [awoʕoik] | 'moon' | SeePilagá phonology | |
| Tarifit | ⵄⵉⵏⵉ/ɛini | [ʕini] | 'probably' | SeeTarifit phonology | |
| Salish[20] | ʕámt | [ʕamt] | 'it’s melted' | ||
| Shehri[21] | ﭘﻌﺐ/śaʿb | [ɬaʕb] | 'valley' | SeeShehri phonology | |
| Sioux | Stoney | marazhud | [maʕaʒud] | 'rain' | |
| Somali[22] | 𐒋𐒛𐒒𐒙/caano | [ʕaːno] | 'milk' | SeeSomali phonology | |
| Soqotri[23] | أَﻋْﺮٞب/áˁreb | [aʕreb] | 'raven' | SeeSoqotri phonology | |
| Ukrainian[citation needed] | голос | [ˈʕɔlos]ⓘ | 'voice' | Also described as glottal[ɦ]. SeeUkrainian phonology | |
