Voiced palatal lateral flap
| Voiced palatal lateral flap | |
|---|---|
| ʎ̮ | |
| Audio sample | |
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A voiced palatal lateral flap is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. There is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound. However, the symbol for a palatal lateral approximant with a breve denoting extra-short ⟨ʎ̆⟩, or equivalently ⟨ʎ̮⟩ to avoid a clash with the ascender, can be used.[1]
Features
Features of a voiced palatal lateral flap:
- Its manner of articulation is tap or flap, which means it is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (usually the tongue) is thrown against another.
- Its place of articulation is palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
- Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
- It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
- It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.
- Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
The Ilgar language of Australia has a palatal lateral flap as well as alveolar and retroflex lateral flaps.[2] Some Northwest Barito languages also have a palatal lateral flap.[3]
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ilgar | [miʎ̮arɡu] | 'Mildyagru (personal name)' | Contrasts with alveolar [ɺ] and retroflex [𝼈]. Not clear if this is a third lateral flap phoneme or due to palatalization of the alveolar lateral flap.[2] | |
| Oʼodham | leʼeje | [ʎ̮ɨʔɨd͡ʒɨ] | 'brat (misbehaving child)' | Described as a palatal lateral flap in recent sources,[4] as an apical alveolar flap in older sources.[5] |
| Ot Siang[3] | [ʎ̮opou] | 'house' | A phonemic distinction between /l/, /ʎ̮/ and /ɾ/ is found in the languages of the area and is reconstructed for Proto-Northwest Barito. | |
| Páez[6] | weʼll | [wɛʔʎ̮] | 'stiff' | Perhaps better analyzed as palatalized [ɺʲ], given the pervasive palatalization of the language. Optionally devoiced in coda position. |
References
- ^ The Unicode® Standard, Version 17.0 – Core Specification (2025), section 7.9.2 Combining Diacritical Marks Extended, and Figure 7-14 Examples of Alternative Code Points for Displaced IPA Diacritics
- ^ a b Nicholas Evans, 2000. "Iwaidjan, a very un-Australian language family." In Linguistic Typology, 4:99-100.
- ^ a b Alfred B. Hudson (1967) The Barito Isolects of Borneo. Cornell University
- ^ Dean Saxton, Lucille Saxton & Susie Enos (1998) Tohono Oʼodham/Pima to English, English to Tohono Oʼodham/Pima Dictionary. University of Arizona Press. 2nd edition, p. 113.
- ^ Saxton, Dean (January 1963). "Papago Phonemes". International Journal of American Linguistics. 29 (1). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press: 29–35. doi:10.1086/464708. ISSN 1545-7001. JSTOR 1264104. S2CID 224808393.
- ^ Gerdel, Florence L. (1973), Fonemas del Páez, Sistemas fonológicos de idiomas colombianos 2, Bogotá: Ministerio de Gobierno and Instituto Lingüístico de Verano