Pharyngeal consonant

Pharyngeal/epiglottal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA):

:{{anchor|Affricates}}*A voiced epiglottal stop may not be possible. When an epiglottal stop becomes voiced intervocalically in Dahalo, for example, it becomes a tap. Phonetically, however, both voiceless and voiced affricates and off-glides are attested: {{IPA|[ʡħ, ʡʕ]}} (Esling 2010: 695).

:** Although traditionally placed in the fricative row of the IPA chart, {{IPA|[ʕ]}} is usually an approximant. Frication is difficult to produce or to distinguish because the voicing in the glottis and the constriction in the pharynx are so close to each other (Esling 2010: 695, after Laufer 1996). The IPA symbol is ambiguous, but no language distinguishes fricative and approximant at this place of articulation. For clarity, the lowering diacritic may used to specify that the manner is approximant ({{IPA|[ʕ̞]}}) and a raising diacritic to specify that the manner is fricative ({{IPA|[ʕ̝]}}).

The Hydaburg dialect of Haida has a trilled epiglottal {{IPA|[ʜ]}} and a trilled epiglottal affricate {{IPA|[ʡʜ]}}~{{IPA|[ʡʢ]}}. (There is some voicing in all Haida affricates, but it is analyzed as an effect of the vowel.){{cn|date=June 2018}}

For transcribing disordered speech, the extIPA provides symbols for upper-pharyngeal stops, ⟨{{IPA|ꞯ}}⟩ and ⟨{{IPA|𝼂}}⟩.

The IPA first distinguished epiglottal consonants in 1989, with a contrast between pharyngeal and epiglottal fricatives, but advances in laryngoscopy since then have caused specialists to re-evaluate their position. Since a trill can be made only in the pharynx with the aryepiglottic folds (in the pharyngeal trill of the northern dialect of Haida, for example), and incomplete constriction at the epiglottis, as would be required to produce epiglottal fricatives, generally results in trilling,{{why|date=December 2023}} there is no contrast between (upper) pharyngeal and epiglottal based solely on place of articulation. Esling (2010) thus restores a unitary pharyngeal place of articulation, with the consonants being described by the IPA as epiglottal fricatives differing from pharyngeal fricatives in their manner of articulation rather than in their place:

{{blockquote|The so-called "Epiglottal fricatives" are represented [here] as pharyngeal trills, {{IPA|[ʜ ʢ]}}, since the place of articulation is identical to {{IPA|[ħ ʕ]}}, but trilling of the aryepiglottic folds is more likely to occur in tighter settings of the laryngeal constrictor or with more forceful airflow. The same "epiglottal" symbols could represent pharyngeal fricatives that have a higher larynx position than {{IPA|[ħ ʕ]}}, but a higher larynx position is also more likely to induce trilling than in a pharyngeal fricative with a lowered larynx position. Because {{IPA|[ʜ ʢ]}} and {{IPA|[ħ ʕ]}} occur at the same Pharyngeal/Epiglottal place of articulation (Esling, 1999), the logical phonetic distinction to make between them is in manner of articulation, trill versus fricative.John Esling (2010) "Phonetic Notation", in Hardcastle, Laver & Gibbon (eds) The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences, 2nd ed., p 695.
The reference "Esling, 1999" is to "The iPA categories 'pharyngeal' and 'epiglottal': laryngoscopic observations of the pharyngeal articulations and larynx height." Language and Speech, 42, 349–372.}}

{{anchor|Epiglotto-pharyngeal consonant}}Edmondson et al. distinguish several subtypes of pharyngeal consonant.Edmondson, Jerold A., John H. Esling, Jimmy G. Harris, & Huang Tung-chiou (n.d.) [http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/amisf.pdf "A laryngoscopic study of glottal and epiglottal/pharyngeal stop and continuant articulations in Amis—an Austronesian language of Taiwan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717075852/http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/amisf.pdf |date=July 17, 2012 }} Pharyngeal or epiglottal stops and trills are usually produced by contracting the aryepiglottic folds of the larynx against the epiglottis. That articulation has been distinguished as aryepiglottal. In pharyngeal fricatives, the root of the tongue is retracted against the back wall of the pharynx. In a few languages, such as Achumawi,{{Cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |title=Aspects of Pit River Phonology |url=http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/316-0599/roa-316-nevin-4.pdf |last=Nevin |first=Bruce |year=1998 |publisher=The University of Pennsylvania }} Amis of Taiwan{{Cite web |url=http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/movies.htm |title=Video clips |access-date=June 2, 2015 |archive-date=September 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070902233004/http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/movies.htm |url-status=dead }} and perhaps some of the Salishan languages, the two movements are combined, with the aryepiglottic folds and epiglottis brought together and retracted against the pharyngeal wall, an articulation that has been termed epiglotto-pharyngeal. The IPA does not have diacritics to distinguish this articulation from standard aryepiglottals; Edmondson et al. use the ad hoc, somewhat misleading, transcriptions {{angbr IPA|ʕ͡ʡ}} and {{angbr IPA|ʜ͡ħ}}. There are, however, several diacritics for subtypes of pharyngeal sound among the Voice Quality Symbols.

Although upper-pharyngeal plosives are not found in the world's languages, apart from the rear closure of some click consonants, they occur in disordered speech. See voiceless upper-pharyngeal plosive and voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive.

Pharyngeals are known primarily from three areas of the world:

1. the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, in the Semitic, Berber (mostly in borrowings from Arabic{{Citation |last=Kossmann |first=Maarten |title=Berber-Arabic Language Contact |date=2017-03-29 |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-232 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |access-date=2023-05-30 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.232 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5|url-access=subscription }}) and Cushitic branches of the Afroasiatic language family
2. the Caucasus, in the Northwest, and Northeast Caucasian language families
3. the endangered native languages of British Columbia, in the Northern Haida dialects, in the Interior Salish branch of the Salishan language family, and in the southern branch of the Wakashan language family.

There are scattered reports of pharyngeals elsewhere, as in:

• Indo-European languages:
• According to the laryngeal theory, Proto-Indo-European might have had pharyngeal consonants.
• Indo-Iranian:
• Iranian:
• Western:
• Northwestern:
• Kurdish: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=kurdish|Mostly occurs in words of Arabic origin, mostly in word-initial position}}
• Zaza–Gorani:
• Zaza: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Gorani: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=arabic|Borrowed from Arabic}}
• Southwestern:
• Kumzari: {{IPA|[ħ]}}
• Persian:
• Tat:
• Judeo-Tat: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Eastern:
• Northastern:
• Yaghnobi: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=yaghnobi|Appear mostly in loanwords. Native words with those sounds are rare and mostly onomatopoeic.}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=yaghnobi}}
• Nuristani:
• Northern:
• Kalasha-ala: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}
• Kamkata-vari:
• Kamviri dialect: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}
• Indo-Aryan:
• Northern
• Western Pahari
• Kullui: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=kullui|Historically derives from {{IPA|/s/}} and occurs word-finally, e.g. {{IPA|[ɡʱɑːħ]}} "grass", {{IPA|[biːħ]}} "twenty"}}
• Eastern
• Bengali-Assamese
• some eastern Bengali dialects: {{IPA|[ʜ]}}{{efn|name=bengali|Mainly realized as such in very eastern regions; often also debuccalized or phonetically realised as {{IPA|/x/}}. Corresponds to {{IPA|/kʰ/}} in western and central dialects}}
• Western:
• Domari: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Northwestern:
• Sindhi:
• Luwati: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}
• Slavic:
• East:
• Ukrainian: {{IPAblink|ʕ}}{{efn|name=ukrainian|According to some linguists, Ukrainian may have a pharyngeal {{IPAblink|ʕ}}{{cite book|last1=Danyenko|first1=Andrii|last2=Vakulenko|first2=Serhii|year=1995|title=Ukrainian|publisher=Lincom Europa|isbn=978-3-929075-08-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WUsbAQAAIAAJ|page=12}} (when devoiced, {{IPAblink|ħ}} or sometimes {{IPAblink|x}} in weak positions). According to others, it is glottal {{IPAblink|ɦ}}.{{cite book|last1=Pugh|first1=Stefan|last2=Press|first2=Ian|year=2005|orig-year=1999|title=Ukrainian: A Comprehensive Grammar|publisher=Routledge|location=London|page=23}}The sound is described as "laryngeal fricative consonant" ({{lang|uk|гортанний

щілинний приголосний}}) in the official orthography: '§ 14. Letter H' in Український правопис, Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 2012, p. 19 ([http://izbornyk.org.ua/pravopys/rozdil1.htm#par14 see e-text])Українська мова: енциклопедія, Kyiv, 2000, p. 85.}}

• Germanic:
• the approximant {{IPA|[ʕ̞]}} is a realization of {{IPA|/r/}} in such Germanic languages as Danish and Swabian German.
• Romance:
• Italo-Western:
• Western:
• Iberian:
• West:
• Galician-Portuguese:
• some dialects of Galician: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=gheada|Gheada}}
• Castilian:
• Judeo-Spanish:
• Haketia: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=hebrew|Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=hebrew}}
• Austronesian languages:
• Formosan:
• East:
• Amis: {{IPA|[ʡ]}} ~ {{IPA|[ʢ]}}, {{IPA|[ʜ]}}{{efn|name=amis|It is unclear if {{IPA|[h]}} is a separate phoneme from {{IPA|[ʜ]}} or if it is just an allophone of it. The voiceless pharyngeal fricative {{IPA|[ħ]}} is a word-final allophone of {{IPA|/ʜ/}}}}
• Atayalic:
• Atayal: {{IPA|[ħ]}}
• Northern:
• Pazeh: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=pazeh|Varies between glottal ({{IPA|[h]}}) and pharyngeal realizations and is sometimes difficult to distinguish from {{IPA|/x/}}}}
• Malayo-Polynesian:
• Malayic:
• Kedah Malay: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=Kedah|Word-final realisation of {{IPA|/r/}}}}
• Central–Eastern:
• Central:
• Sumba–Flores:
• Savu:
• Dhao: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=dhao|Sometimes silent, but contrasts with a glottal stop onset in vowel-initial words within a phrase. Its phonemic status is not clear. It has an "extremely limited distribution", linking noun phrases ({{IPA|/ʔiki/}} 'small', {{IPA|/ʔana ʕiki/}} 'small child') and clauses ({{IPA|/ʕaa/}} 'and', {{IPA|/ʕoo/}} 'also')}}
• Timoric:
• Mambai: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=Mumbai|In free variation with {{IPA|[h]}}}}
• Niger–Congo languages:
• Atlantic-Congo:
• Volta-Congo:
• Volta-Niger:
• Gbe:
• Ewe: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=ewe|Has also been described as uvular {{IPA|[ʁ]}} or glottal {{IPA|[ɦ]}}}}
• Senufo:
• Suppire–Mamara:
• Minyanka: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=minyanka|Typically heard when in between vowels, or as an allophone of {{IPA|/ɡ/}} when in intervocalic position}}
• Nilo-Saharan languages:
• Bʼaga:
• Daatsʼiin: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=daats'iin|Only occurs when following {{IPA|/l/}} or {{IPA|/r/}} and preceding {{IPA|/a/}}, and it can be analyzed as an allophone of the glottal stop {{IPA|/ʔ/}}}}
• Saharan:
• Eastern:
• Zaghawa: {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=arabic}}
• Songhay:
• Northern:
• Tadaksahak: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Tagdal: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Korandje: {{IPA|[ħ]}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages:
• Chukotkan:
• Koryak: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Alyutor: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• Kerek: {{IPA|[ħ]}}
• the language isolate Kusunda of Nepal: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=kusunda|In free variation with {{IPA|[ʁ]}}}}
• the Papuan language Teiwa: {{IPA|[ħ]}}
• the Guaicuruan language Pilagá: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• the Mayan language Achi: {{IPA|[ʕ]}}
• the Siouan language Stoney (Nakoda): {{IPA|[ħ]}}{{efn|name=stoney|In the Morley dialect}}, {{IPA|[ʕ]}}{{efn|name=stoney}}
• the Achumawi language of California: {{IPA|[ʜ]}}

{{Notelist}}

The fricatives and trills (the pharyngeal and epiglottal fricatives) are frequently conflated with pharyngeal fricatives in literature. That was the case for Dahalo and Northern Haida, for example, and it is likely to be true for many other languages. The distinction between these sounds was recognized by IPA only in 1989, and it was little investigated until the 1990s.

• Pharyngealization
• Strident vowel
• Ayin
• Heth
• Guttural

{{reflist}}

• {{SOWL}}
• Maddieson, I., & Wright, R. (1995). The vowels and consonants of Amis: A preliminary phonetic report. In I. Maddieson (Ed.), UCLA working papers in phonetics: Fieldwork studies of targeted languages III (No. 91, pp. 45–66). Los Angeles: The UCLA Phonetics Laboratory Group. [http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h25w3h3#page=48 (in pdf)]

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Category:Place of articulation