Voiceless palatal lateral fricative
The voiceless palatal lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in a few spoken languages.
| Voiceless palatal lateral fricative | |
|---|---|
| ʎ̝̊ | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | ʎ̥˔ |
| Unicode (hex) | U+028E U+0325 U+02D4 |
| Audio sample | |
|
source · help | |
This sound is somewhat rare; Dahalo has both a palatal lateral fricative and an affricate; Hadza has a series of affricates. In Bura, it is the realization of palatalized /ɬʲ/ and contrasts with [ʎ].
The IPA has no dedicated symbol for this sound. The devoicing and raising diacritics may be used to transcribe it: ⟨ʎ̝̊⟩. However, the "belt" on the existing symbol for a voiceless lateral fricative, ⟨ɬ⟩, forms the basis for other lateral fricatives used in the extIPA, including the palatal, ⟨⟩:
SIL International has added this symbol to the Private Use Areas of their Gentium, Charis, and Doulos fonts, as U+F267 ().
If distinction is necessary, the voiceless alveolo-palatal lateral fricative may be transcribed as ⟨ɬ̠ʲ⟩ (retracted and palatalized ⟨ɬ⟩) or ⟨ʎ̝̊˖⟩ (devoiced, advanced and raised ⟨ʎ⟩); these are essentially equivalent, since the contact includes both the blade and body (but not the tip) of the tongue. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are K_-_j or K_-' and L_0_+_r, respectively. A non-IPA letter ⟨ ⟩ can also be used, and so can the non-IPA ⟨ȴ̊˔⟩ (devoiced and raised ⟨ȴ⟩, which is an ordinary "l", plus the curl found in the symbols for alveolo-palatal sibilant fricatives ⟨ɕ, ʑ⟩).
Features
Features of the voiceless palatal lateral 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 palatal, which means it is articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
- Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
- It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
- 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.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bura[1] | Contrasts with [ɬ] and [ɮ].[1] | ||||
| Dahalo | [ʎ̝̊aːbu] | 'leaf' | Contrasts with [ɬ] and [ɬʷ] | ||
| Inupiaq[2] | sikł̣aq | [sikʎ̝̊˖ɑq] | 'pickaxe' | Alveolo-palatal;[2] also described as an approximant [ʎ̥˖].[3] Contrasts with voiceless /ɬ/ and voiced /ʎ/ and /l/. | |
| nuiŋił̣ł̣uni | [nuiŋiʎ̝̊˖ʎ̝̊˖uni] | 'because it did not appear' | |||
Notes
- Grønnum (2005:154–155)
- MacLean 1980, p. XX.
- Kaplan 1981, p. 29.
References
- Grønnum, Nina (2005), Fonetik og fonologi, Almen og Dansk (3rd ed.), Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, ISBN 87-500-3865-6
- MacLean, Edna Ahgeak (1980), Iñupiallu Tanņiḷḷu Uqaluņisa Iḷaņich = Abridged Iñupiaq and English Dictionary (PDF), Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, p. xvii-xx, retrieved 20 December 2017
- Kaplan, Lawrence D. (1981), Phonological Issues in North Alaskan Inupiaq (PDF), Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska, p. 21-29, retrieved 20 December 2017
