Velar consonant

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Places of articulation

Labial

Bilabial

Labial-velar

Labial-alveolar

Labiodental

Bidental

Coronal

Linguolabial

Interdental

Dental

Alveolar

Apical

Laminal

Postalveolar

Alveolo-palatal

Retroflex

Dorsal

Palatal

Labial-palatal

Velar

Uvular

Uvular-epiglottal

Radical

Pharyngeal

Epiglotto-pharyngeal

Epiglottal

Glottal

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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, known also 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. They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted 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 [w], since labialization involves adding of a labial approximant articulation to a sound, and this ambiguous situation is often called labiovelar.

The velar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

IPA	Description	Example
		Language	Orthography	IPA	Meaning
	velar nasal	English	ring	[ɹɪŋ]	ring
	voiceless velar plosive	English	skip	[skɪp]	skip
	voiced velar plosive	English	get	[ɡɛt]	get
	voiceless velar fricative	German	Bauch	[baʊx]	abdomen
	voiced velar fricative	Margi	ɣàfə́	[ɣàfə́]	arrow
	voiceless labial-velar approximant	English	which[1]	[ʍɪtʃ]	which
	velar approximant	Spanish	pagar[2]	[paɰaɾ]	to pay
	velar lateral approximant	Mid-Wahgi	aʟaʟe	[aʟaʟe]	dizzy
	labial-velar approximant	English	witch	[wɪtʃ]	witch

It is important to note at this point that a velar trill or tap is not possible - see the shaded boxes on the consonant table at the bottom. In the velar position the tongue has an extremely restricted ability to carry out the type of motion associated with trills or taps. Nor does the soft palate have the freedom to vibrate quickly to produce the uvular trill and hypothetically a uvular flap.^[3]

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ t͡ɕ d͡ʑ t͡ʂ d͡ʐ t͡ɬ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.