Voiceless velar lateral affricate
| Voiceless velar lateral affricate | |
|---|---|
| k𝼄 | |
| kʟ̝̊ | |
| Audio sample | |
Thevoiceless velar lateral affricateis a relatively uncommon speech sound found as a phoneme in theCaucasusand as anallophonein several languages of eastern and southern Africa. In strictIPA,it needs to be transcribed with diacritics, but a proper letter exists inextIPA:⟨k͜𝼄⟩.
Archi,aNortheast Caucasian languageofDagestan,has two such affricates, plain[k𝼄]andlabialized[k𝼄ʷ],though they are further forward thanvelarsin most languages, and might better be calledprevelar.Archi also hasejectivevariants of its lateral affricates, severalvoiceless lateral fricatives,and avoiced lateral fricativeat the sameplace of articulation,but noalveolarlateral fricatives oraffricates.[1]
ZuluandXhosahave a voiceless lateral affricate as an allophone of theirvoiceless velar affricate.Hadzahas an ejective velar lateral affricate as an allophone of itsvelar ejective affricate.Indeed, in Hadza this[k͜𝼄ʼ]contrasts with apalatal lateral ejective affricate,[c͜𝼆ʼ].ǁXegwiis reported to have contrasted velar/k͜𝼄/from alveolar/t͜ɬ/.
Features[edit]
Features of the voiceless velar lateral affricate:
- Itsmanner of articulationisaffricate,which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
- Itsplace of articulationisvelar,which means it is articulated with the back of thetongue(the dorsum) at thesoft palate.
- Itsphonationis voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
- 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[edit]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archi[1] | лӀон/ƛon | [k͜𝼄on] | 'a flock' | Pre-velar.[1] |
| Bezhta | [example needed] | |||
References[edit]
- ^abcThe Archi Language Tutorial.The source uses the symbol for thevoiceless alveolar lateral fricativefor the fricative part of this sound (⟨k͡ɬ⟩), but also indicates the sound to be prevelar.
