The Velar consonant reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

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).

The velar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

IPA Symbol	Name	Example		Meaning
k	Voiceless velar plosive	English	[khæp]	cap
g	Voiced velar plosive	English	[gɛt]	get
ŋ	Velar nasal	English	[ɹʌŋ]	rung
x	Voiceless velar fricative	Hebrew	[mixel]	מיכאל (="Michael")
ɣ	Voiced velar fricative	Margi	[ɣàfə́]	(="arrow")
ɰ	Velar approximant	Spanish	[paɰa]	paga (="pay", third person plural) 1
ʟ	Velar lateral approximant	Mid-Waghi	[aʟaʟe]	(="dizzy")
w	Labio-velar approximant	English	[wɪtʃ]	witch
ʍ	Voiceless labio-velar fricative	English	[ʍɪtʃ]	which 2

Notes:

1. Intervocalic 'g' in Spanish often described instead as a very lightly articulated voiced velar fricative.
2. For English dialectss that distinguish between which and witch

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 [k^w] etc. In these the articulation is accompanied by rounding of the lips.

See also

• place of articulation
• List of phonetics topics

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