"Velar" redirects here. For other uses, see Velar (disambiguation).
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the “velum”).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsum
are not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the front
depending on the quality of adjacent vowels.[1] They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted, that is partly or completely uvular before back vowels.
Palatalised velars (like English /k/ in keen or cube) are sometimes referred to as palatovelars. Many languages also have labialized velars, such as [kʷ], in which the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips. There are also labial–velar consonants, which are doubly articulated at the velum and at the lips, such as [k͡p]. This distinction disappears with the approximant consonant [w] since labialization involves adding of a labial approximant articulation to a sound, and this ambiguous situation is often called labiovelar.
A velar trill or tap is not possible according to the International Phonetics Association: see the shaded boxes on the table of pulmonic consonants. In the velar position, the tongue has an extremely restricted ability to carry out the type of motion associated with trills or taps, and the body of the tongue has no freedom to move quickly enough to produce a velar trill or flap.[2]
^Stroud, Kevin (August 2013). "Episode 5: Centum, Satem and the Letter C | The History of English Podcast". The History of English Podcast. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also...
§ Brackets and transcription delimiters. A labialized velar or labiovelar is a velarconsonant that is labialized, with a /w/-like secondary articulation...
The voiced velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents...
The voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet...
The voiced velar lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used as a distinct consonant in a very small number of spoken languages in the world...
The voiced velar nasal, also known as agma, from the Greek word for 'fragment', is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the...
The voiced velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. Some languages have the voiced pre-velar plosive, which...
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can...
The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English...
The velar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this...
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velarconsonants. Uvulars...
Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Labiovelar consonant may refer to: Labial–velarconsonant such as [k͡p] (a consonant made at two places of articulation, one...
The voiceless velar nasal is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents...
letter standing for the velarized consonant, as in ⟨tˠ⟩ (a velarized [t]) To distinguish velarization from a velar fricative release, ⟨ᵚ⟩ may be used...
The voiceless velar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents...
A velar fricative is a fricative consonant produced at the velar place of articulation. It is possible to distinguish the following kinds of velar fricatives:...
voiceless velar lateral fricative is a rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa (see velar lateral ejective...
restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded. The most common labialized consonants are labialized velars. Most other...
and transcription delimiters. In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so...
and Tahitian—which have no dorsal consonants whatsoever—nearly all other languages have at least one velarconsonant: most of the few languages that do...
following velarconsonant: лёгких [ˈlʲɵxʲkʲɪx]) ('lungs' gen. pl.). Palatalization assimilation of labial consonants before labial consonants is in free...
unaspirated consonants are left unmarked: ⟨t⟩. Aspiration of final stops and affricates in Eastern Armenian Final aspirated and voiceless velar stops տաք...
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