A pharyngeal consonant is a consonant that is articulated primarily in the pharynx. Some phoneticians distinguish upper-pharyngeal consonants (as they are in the extIPA)also called "high" pharyngeals or radico-pharyngealspronounced by retracting the tongue root (the radix) in the mid to upper pharynx to make contact with the pharyngeal wall, and epiglottal consonantsalso called "low" pharyngealswhich are pronounced either with the epiglottis making contact with the pharyngeal wall (epiglotto-pharyngeals), or with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis at the entrance of the larynx (aryepiglottals). Other phoneticians combine (upper-)pharyngeals and epiglottalsi.e. "high" and "low" pharyngealsunder a single place of articulation.
Stops and trills can be reliably produced only at the epiglottis, and fricatives can be reliably produced only in the upper pharynx. When they are treated as distinct places of articulation, the term radical consonant may be used as a cover term, or the term guttural consonants may be used instead.
Pharyngeal consonants can trigger effects on neighboring vowels. Instead of uvulars, which nearly always trigger retraction, pharyngeals tend to trigger lowering. For example, in Moroccan Arabic, pharyngeals tend to lower neighboring vowels (corresponding to the formant 1). In Chechen, it causes lowering as well, in addition to centralization and lengthening of the segment .
In addition, consonants and vowels may be secondarily pharyngealized. Also, strident vowels are defined by an accompanying epiglottal trill.
Pharyngeal consonants in the IPA Pharyngeal/epiglottal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA):
IPA Description Example Language Orthography IPA Meaning Voiceless* pharyngeal (epiglottal) plosiveAghul, Richa dialectKodzasov, S. V. Pharyngeal Features in the Daghestan Languages. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Tallinn, Estonia, Aug 1-7 1987), pp. 142-144. йагьІ 'centre' Voiceless pharyngeal (epiglottal) trill хІач 'apple' Voiced pharyngeal (epiglottal) trill Іекв 'light'Voiceless pharyngeal fricativeArabic 'heat'Voiced pharyngeal fricative** 'eye'Pharyngeal (Epiglottal) flap Dahalo 'mud'Pharyngeal approximantDanishravn'raven'Voiceless epiglottal affricateHaida (Hydaburg Dialect)x̱ung[ʡ͜ʜuŋ]'father'Voiced epiglottal affricate Somalicad[ʡ͜ʢaʔ͜t]'white'Voiceless upper-pharyngeal plosive[extIPA for speech pathology] Voiced upper-pharyngeal plosive
*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: (Esling 2010: 695). ** Although traditionally placed in the fricative row of the IPA chart, 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 () and a raising diacritic to specify that the manner is fricative ().
The Hydaburg dialect of Haida has a trilled epiglottal and a trilled epiglottal affricate ~. (There is some voicing in all Haida affricates, but it is analyzed as an effect of the vowel.)
For transcribing disordered speech, the extIPA provides symbols for upper-pharyngeal stops, ⟨⟩ and ⟨⟩.
Place of articulation 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, 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:
Edmondson et al. distinguish several subtypes of pharyngeal consonant.Edmondson, Jerold A., John H. Esling, Jimmy G. Harris, & Huang Tung-chiou (n.d.) "A laryngoscopic study of glottal and epiglottal/pharyngeal stop and continuant articulations in Amis—an Austronesian language of Taiwan" 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, Amis of Taiwan 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 and . 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.
Distribution Pharyngeals are known primarily from three areas of the world: the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa, in the Semitic, Berber (mostly in borrowings from Arabic) and Cushitic branches of the Afroasiatic language family the Caucasus, in the Northwest, and Northeast Caucasian language families 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: , Zaza–Gorani: Zaza: , Gorani: , Southwestern: Kumzari: Persian: Tat: Judeo-Tat: , Eastern: Northeastern: Yaghnobi: , Nuristani: Northern: Kalasha-ala: , Kamkata-vari: Kamviri dialect: , Indo-Aryan: Northern Western Pahari Kullui: Eastern Bengali-Assamese some eastern Bengali dialects: Western: Domari: , Northwestern: Sindhi: Luwati: , Slavic: East: Ukrainian: Germanic: the approximant is a realization of in such Germanic languages as Danish and Swabian German. Romance: Italo-Western: Western: Iberian: West: Galician-Portuguese: some dialects of Galician: Castilian: Judeo-Spanish: Haketia: , Austronesian languages: Formosan: East: Amis: ~ , Atayalic: Atayal: Northern: Pazeh: Malayo-Polynesian: Malayic: Kedah Malay: Central–Eastern: Central: Sumba–Flores: Savu: Dhao: Timoric: Mambai: Niger–Congo languages: Atlantic-Congo: Volta-Congo: Volta-Niger: Gbe: Ewe: Senufo: Suppire–Mamara: Minyanka: Nilo-Saharan languages: Bʼaga: Daatsʼiin: Saharan: Eastern: Zaghawa: Songhay: Northern: Tadaksahak: , Tagdal: , Korandje: , Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages: Chukotkan: Koryak: Alyutor: Kerek: the language isolate Kusunda of Nepal: the Papuan language Teiwa: the Guaicuruan language Pilagá: the Mayan language Achi: the Siouan language Stoney (Nakoda): , the Achumawi language of California:
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.
See also Pharyngealization Strident vowel Ayin Heth Guttural
Notes
Sources
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. (in pdf)