Voiceless uvular lateral fricative

Voiceless uvular lateral fricative
ʟ̠˔̊
Encoding
X-SAMPA	L\_-_r_o

The voiceless uvular lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʟ˔̊⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is L\_-_r_o. ⟨ʟ̠˔̊⟩ may also represent the pharyngeal or epiglottal lateral fricative, a physically possible sound that is not attested in any language. The letter for a back-velar in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨ᴫ⟩, may also be used.

Features

Features of the uvular 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 uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it 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.
• 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

This sound is not known to occur in any language phonemically.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Archi		лъат	[ʟ̝̊at]	'sea'

References

• Gimson, Alfred Charles (2014), Cruttenden, Alan (ed.), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (8th ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9781444183092
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.