Voiced velar fricative

IPA – number	141
IPA – text	ɣ
IPA – image
Entity	ɣ
X-SAMPA	G
Kirshenbaum	Q
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in various spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɣ (a variant of the Greek letter gamma, which is used for this sound in Modern Greek; not to be confused with ɤ, the symbol for a close-mid back unrounded vowel), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G. The symbol ɣ is also sometimes used to represent the velar approximant, though that is more accurately written with the lowering diacritic, ɣ˕; when the velar approximant of a language is specifically unrounded, ɰ is more accurate as ɣ can labialized ([ɣ˕ʷ]).

Features

Features of the voiced velar fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is velar which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum).
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

Occurrence

See also

• List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264