Voiced palatal lateral flap

Voiced palatal lateral flap
ʎ̆
Audio sample
source·help

Thevoiced palatal lateral flapis a rare type ofconsonantalsound, used in some spokenlanguages.There is no dedicated symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabetthat represents this sound. However, the symbol for apalatal lateral approximantwith abrevedenotingextra-short⟨ʎ̆⟩ may be used.

Features

Features of the voiced palatal lateral flap:

• Itsmanner of articulationistap or flap,which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
• Itsplace of articulationispalatal,which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of thetongueraised to thehard palate.
• Itsphonationis voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is anoral consonant,which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is alateral consonant,which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
• Theairstream mechanismispulmonic,which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with theintercostal musclesandabdominal muscles,as in most sounds.

Occurrence

TheIwaidjaandIlgar languagesof Australia have a palatal lateral flap as well asalveolarandretroflex lateral flaps.However, the palatal flap has not been shown to bephonemic;it may instead be an underlying sequence/ɺj/.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Ilgar	[miʎ̆arɡu]		Mildyagru	Likely an underlying sequence of/ɺj/.Contrasts /l, ɺ, ɭ, ɭ̆/.
Iwaidja				Contrasts /l, ɺ, ɭ, ɭ̆/ and possibly /ʎ, ʎ̆/ though they are likely underlying sequences of/Lj/.