Velarization


Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four diacritics:
  1. A tilde or swung dash through the letter covers velarization, uvularization and pharyngealization, as in
  2. A superscript Latin gamma after the letter standing for the velarized consonant, as in
  3. To distinguish velarization from a velar fricative release, may be used instead of
  4. A superscript indicates either simultaneous velarization and labialization, as in or, or labialization of a velar consonant, as in.
Although electropalatographic studies have shown that there is a continuum of possible degrees of velarization, the IPA does not specify any way to indicate degrees of velarization, as the difference has not been found to be contrastive in any language. However, the IPA convention of doubling diacritics to indicate a greater degree can be used:.

Examples

English

A common example of a velarized consonant is the velarized alveolar lateral approximant. In some accents of English, such as Received Pronunciation, the phoneme has "dark" and "light" allophones: the "dark", velarized allophone appears in syllable coda position, while the "light", non-velarized allophone appears in syllable onset position. Other accents of English, such as Scottish English, Australian English, and General American English, have "dark L" in all positions.

Velarized /l/

For many languages, velarization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants so that dark l tends to be dental or dentoalveolar, and clear l tends to be retracted to an alveolar position.

Other velarized consonants

The palatalized/velarized contrast is known by other names, especially in language pedagogy: in Irish and Scottish Gaelic language teaching, the terms slender and broad are often used. In Scottish Gaelic the terms are caol and leathann.
The terms light or clear and dark are also widespread. The terms "soft l " and "hard l " are not equivalent to "light l " and "dark l ". The former pair refers to palatalized and plain Slavic consonants.

Citations