Voiced pharyngeal fricative

A voiced pharyngeal fricative or approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is Template:Angbr IPA.

Although the official classification of manner for this sound in the IPA is a fricative, spectrographic and acoustic studies have found that it is most often realized as an approximant.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, as no language is known to make a phonemic distinction between voiced pharyngeal fricatives and approximants. For clarity, the approximant may be distinguished with the IPA diacritic for lowering, such as Template:Angbr IPA.<ref name="esling2010">Template:Cite book</ref> Additionally, laryngoscopic studies by John Esling have shown the vowel Template:IPAalink to have distinct pharyngeal constriction and resonance in its articulation,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> making Template:Angbr IPA the analogous semivowel of Template:Angbr IPA. Esling furthers this notion in his expanded notation of the IPA chart; alongside merging pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants into a single column, he suggests that if it were spatially possible to align the vowel chart with the consonant chart, so that the relations between vowels and their semivowel counterparts are maintained (such as Template:IPAalink below Template:IPAalink and Template:IPAalink below Template:IPAalink), then the vowels Template:Angbr IPA and Template:IPAalink should be placed under the combined pharyngeal/epiglottal column.<ref name="esling2010" />

The IPA letter Template:Angbr IPA is caseless. Capital Template:Angbr and lower-case Template:Angbr were added to Unicode in September, 2025 with version 17.0.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Features

Features of a voiced pharyngeal approximant fricative:

Occurrence

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 have epiglottal consonants instead. For example, the candidate Template:IPA sound in Arabic and standard Hebrew (not modern Hebrew – Israelis generally pronounce this as a glottal stop) has been variously described as a voiced epiglottal fricative Template:IPA, an epiglottal approximant Template:IPA,<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> or a pharyngealized glottal stop Template:IPA.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'March'
Afar		damaqtu	[dʌmʌʕtu]	'male baboon'
Arabic		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'Arabic'	See Arabic phonology
Aramaic	Eastern	Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'door'	The majority of the speakers will pronounce the word as Template:IPA.
	Western		Template:IPA
Avar		Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'handle'
Chechen		Template:Lang/Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'winter'
Coeur d'Alene<ref name="doak97">Template:Cite thesis</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'antelope'
Danish	Standard<ref name="SOWL323">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA]	'raven'	An approximant;<ref name="SOWL323" /> also described as uvular Template:IPAblink.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> See Danish phonology
Dhao<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref>		Template:IPA		'and'	Phonetic status is not clear, but it has "extremely limited distribution". It may not be pronounced at all or be realized as a glottal stop.
Dutch	Limburg<ref name="CoMe">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'wheel'	An approximant; a possible realization of Template:IPA.<ref name="CoMe"/> Realization of Template:IPA varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
German	Some speakers<ref name="dud51">Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'mother'	An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol.<ref name="dud51"/> See Standard German phonology
	Swabian dialect<ref name="Hiller">Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'changes'	An approximant.<ref name="Hiller"/> It's an allophone of Template:IPA in nucleus and coda positions;<ref name="Hiller"/> pronounced as a uvular approximant in onsets.<ref name="Hiller"/>
Hebrew	Iraqi	Template:Lang/Template:Transliteration	Template:IPA	'Hebrew language'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
	Sephardi		Template:IPA
	Yemenite		Template:Audio-IPA
Ingush		Template:Lang	[ʕaddal]	'Archer'
Judeo-Spanish<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	Haketia	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'Morocco'	Only appears in Hebrew and Arabic loanwords.
Kabyle<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'my (paternal) uncle'
Kurdish	Kurmanji	Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'cloud'	The sound is usually not written in the Latin alphabet, but Template:Angbr can be used.
Khalaj	Standard	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'side'
Luwati		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'castle'	Used in Arabic loanwords
Malay	Kedah	Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'to burn'	Corresponds to word-final Template:IPA in Standard Malay. Could be voiced velar fricative [[[:Template:IPA link]]] for some speakers.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Prevocalically and intervocalically, Standard Malay Template:IPA corresponds to Template:IPAslink in Kedah Malay. See Kedah Malay
Maltese		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'tomorrow'
Mehri<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'eye'
Nuu-chah-nulth		ʕiiniƛ	Template:IPA	'dog'	May be a plosive Template:IPA
Occitan	Southern AuvergnatTemplate:Citation needed	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'shovel'	See Occitan phonology
Okanagan<ref name="pattison1978">Pattison, Lois Cornelia. "Douglas Lake Okanagan: Phonology and Morphology." University of British Columbia. 1978.</ref>		ʕaymt	Template:IPA	'angry'
Pilagá<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'moon'	See Pilagá phonology
Tarifit		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'probably'	See Tarifit phonology
Salish<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'it’s melted'
Shehri<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	[ɬaʕb]	'valley'	See Shehri phonology
Sioux	Stoney	Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'rain'
Somali<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	[ʕaːno]	'milk'	See Somali phonology
Soqotri<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>		Template:Lang/Template:Lang	Template:IPA	'raven'	See Soqotri phonology
UkrainianTemplate:Citation needed		Template:Lang	Template:Audio-IPA	'voice'	Also described as glottal Template:IPAblink. See Ukrainian phonology

See also

• Modifier letter left half ring
• Index of phonetics articles
• Voiced uvular fricative
• Glottal stop
• Ayin

General references

• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:Citation
• Template:SOWL
• Template:Cite journal

External links

• Template:Phoible