Voiceless palatal lateral fricative

Voiceless palatal lateral fricative
𝼆
Audio sample
source · help
Image

The voiceless palatal lateral fricative is a sound used in some spoken languages. The IPA letter for this sound is ⟨𝼆⟩, also known as turned y with belt. It is not in English.

Characteristics

• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is palatal. This means that this sound is produced with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• It is a lateral consonant. This means that this sound is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, but not down the middle.
• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is fricative. This means that this sound is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, to make turbulence.

Examples

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Bura
Dahalo	[𝼆aːbu]		'leaf'	Contrasts with alveolar [ɬ] and labialized [ɬʷ].
Kumeyaay	kałyəxwiiw	[kɑ𝼆əxʷeːw]	'skunk'	Rare in word-initial positions.

Voiceless palatal lateral approximant

Voiceless palatal lateral approximant
ʎ̥
Encoding
X-SAMPA	L_0

The voiceless palatal lateral approximant is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is not in English.

Characteristics

• The phonation is voiceless. This means that this sound is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• The place of articulation (where the sound is produced) is palatal. This means that this sound is produced with the middle or back part of the tongue raised to the hard palate.
• It is a lateral consonant. This means that this sound is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, but not down the middle.
• The manner of articulation (how the sound is produced) is approximant. This means that this sound is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place this sound is produced. However, it is not narrowed enough to produce a turbulent airstream.

Examples

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Faroese	kjálki	[ˈt͡ʃʰaʎ̥t͡ʃɪ]	'jaw'	Devoiced allophone of /l/ occurring before /k/.
Norwegian	alt	[ɑʎ̥c]	'everything'	Allophone of /ʎ/ before /c/ in the Trondheim subdialect of Trøndersk.
Scottish Gaelic	coilltean	[ˈkʰɤiʎ̥tʲən]	'woods'	Allophone of /ʎ/ occurring before /tʲʰ/.
Standard Tibetan	Lhasa	[ˈʎ̥asə]	'Lhasa'	Often romanized as 'lh'; occurs as a phoneme.