A voiceless velar lateral fricative is a rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa (see velar lateral ejective affricate). However, a simple fricative has only been reported from a few languages in the Caucasus and New Guinea.
In New Guinea, some of the Chimbu–Wahgi languages such as Melpa, Middle Wahgi, and Nii, have a velar lateral, which they write with a double-bar el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). One speaker of Kuman was found to have the voiceless fricative in syllable coda position as an allophone of a voiced velar lateral .Steed, W., & Hardie, P. (2004). Acoustic Properties of the Kuman Voiceless Velar Lateral Fricative. Proceedings of the 10th Australian International Conference on Speech Science & Technology, Sydney.
The extIPA has the letter for this sound. It was added to Unicode in 2021.
Features Features of a voiceless velar lateral fricative:
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Wahgi nòⱡ 'water'
Voiceless velar lateral approximant
Some scholars also posit a voiceless velar lateral approximant distinct from the fricative. The approximant may be represented in the IPA as .
Language Word IPA Meaning NotesEnglish Western Americanclear 'clear' Possible allophone of after . See English phonology German Austrian 'clear' Possible allophone of after the aspirated allophone of . See Standard German phonologyWelshpwll 'pool' Possible allophone of after back vowels.
See also Voiced velar lateral fricative Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative Voiceless velar fricative
Notes
References