Secondary articulation

Types

There are several kinds of secondary articulation supported by the International Phonetic Alphabet:

• Labialization is the most frequently encountered secondary articulation. For example, labialized has a primary velar plosive articulation, , with simultaneous -like rounding of the lips, thus the name. It is in contrast to the doubly articulated labial-velar consonant , which is articulated with two overlapping plosive articulations, and .
• Palatalization is perhaps best known from the Russian "soft" consonants like , which has a primary alveolar plosive articulation, , with simultaneous -like (i.e. y-like) raising of the body of the tongue.
• Labio-palatalization is simultaneous -like labialization and palatalization. It is found, for example, in the name Twi, .
• Velarization is the raising of the back of the tongue toward the velum, as in the English "dark" L, .
• Pharyngealization is a constriction in the throat (pharynx) and is found in the Arabic "emphatic" consonants such as .
• Glottalization involves action of the glottis in addition to the primary articulation of the consonant.

It can sometimes be difficult to distinguish primary and secondary articulation. For example, the alveolo-palatal consonants are sometimes characterized as a distinct primary articulation and sometimes as palatalization of postalveolar fricatives, equivalent to or .

Transcription

The most common method of transcription in the IPA is to turn the letter corresponding to the secondary articulation into a superscript written after the letter for the primary articulation. For example, the w in is written after the k. This can be misleading, as it iconically suggests that the is released into a sound, analogous to ([k] with a lateral and nasal release), when actually the two articulations of are generally pronounced more-or-less simultaneously. Secondary articulation often has a strong effect on surrounding vowels, and may have an audible realization that precedes the primary consonant, or both precedes and follows it. For example, will not generally sound simply like , but may be closer to or even . For this reason, the IPA symbols for labialization and palatalization were for a time placed under the primary letter (e.g. for and for ), and a number of phoneticians still prefer such unambiguous usage, with and used specifically for off-glides, despite the official policy of the IPA. In the official IPA there remains only an alternative symbol for velarization/pharyngealizaton that is superposed over the primary (e.g. for dark L), but that has font support for a limited number of consonants and is inadvisable for others, where it can be illegible. A few phoneticians use superscript letters for offglides and subscript letters for simultaneous articulation (e.g. vs ).

There is a longstanding tradition in the IPA that one may turn any IPA letter into a superscript, and in so doing impart its features to the base consonant. For instance, would be an articulation of that has qualities of .{{cite journal

The 2015 edition of the Extensions to the International Phonetic Alphabet formally advocates superscript letters for the first time since 1989, specifically for the release of plosives.{{cite journal

References

Sources

• {{cite book |editor-last=Malmkjaer |editor-first=Kirsten |url-access=limited