Velar consonant

Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive and the movements of the dorsum are not very precise, velars easily undergo assimilation, shifting their articulation back or to the front depending on the quality of adjacent vowels. They often become automatically fronted, that is partly or completely palatal before a following front vowel, and retracted before back vowels. Palatalised velars (like English /k/ in keen or cube) are sometimes referred to as palatovelars. Many languages also have labiovelar phonemes, including the approximant /w/ and others given symbols like /kʷ/ etc. In these the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips. The velar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: style="background:gray; color:white"! style="border:1px solid black" rowspan="2" | Description style="background:gray; color:white"! style="border:1px solid black"|Orthography! style="border:1px solid black"|Meaning

IPA	Example
	Language	IPA
Image:Xsampa-k.png	voiceless velar plosive	English	sip		skip
Image:Xsampa-g.png	voiced velar plosive	English	et		get
Image:Xsampa-N2.png	velar nasal	English			ring
Image:Xsampa-x.png	voiceless velar fricative	Hebrew	מיאל		Michael
Image:Xsampa-G2.png	voiced velar fricative	Margi	àfə́		arrow
Image:Xsampa-Mslash.png	velar approximant	Spanish	paar		to pay
Image:Xsampa-Lslash.png	velar lateral approximant	Mid-Waghi	aae		dizzy
Image:Xsampa-w2.png	labio-velar approximant	English	itch		witch
Image:Xsampa-X.png	voiceless labio-velar fricative	English	ich		which

Notes: # Intervocalic g in Spanish often described instead as a very lightly articulated voiced velar fricative. # For English dialects that distinguish between which and witch

See also

• place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

ar:طبقي de:Velarer Laut fr:Consonne vélaire Category:Phonetics

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