Guttural

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Guttural speech sounds are those with a primary place of articulation near the back of the oral cavity, where it is difficult to distinguish a sound's place of articulation and its phonation. In popular usage it is an imprecise term for sounds produced relatively far back in the vocal tract, such as German ch or the Arabic ayin, but not simple glottal sounds like h. The term 'guttural language' is used for languages that have such sounds.

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As a technical term used by phoneticians and phonologists, guttural has had various definitions. The concept always includes pharyngeal consonants, but may include velar, uvular or laryngeal consonants as well. Guttural sounds are typically consonants, but murmured, pharyngealized, glottalized and strident vowels may be also considered guttural in nature. [1] [2] Some phonologists argue that all post-velar sounds constitute a natural class. [3]

Meaning and etymology

The word guttural literally means 'of the throat' (from Latin guttur, meaning throat), and was first used by phoneticians to describe the Hebrew glottal [ ʔ ] (א) and [ h ] (ה), uvular [ χ ] (ח), and pharyngeal [ ʕ ] (ע). [4]

The term is commonly used non-technically by English speakers to refer to sounds that subjectively appear harsh or grating. This definition usually includes a number of consonants that are not used in English, such as epiglottal [ ʜ ] and [ ʡ ], uvular [χ], [ ʁ ] and [ q ], and velar fricatives [ x ] and [ ɣ ]. However, it usually excludes sounds used in English, such as the velar stops [ k ] and [ ɡ ], the velar nasal [ ŋ ], and the glottal consonants [h] and [ʔ]. [5] [6]

Guttural languages

In popular consciousness, languages that make extensive use of guttural consonants are often considered to be guttural languages. English-speakers sometimes find such languages strange and even hard on the ear. [7]

Examples of significant usage

Languages that extensively use [x], [χ], [ʁ], [ɣ] and/or [q] include:

In addition to their usage of [q], [x], [χ], [ʁ] and [ɣ], these languages also have the pharyngeal consonants of [ʕ] and [ħ]:

Examples of partial usage

In French, the only truly guttural sound is (usually) a uvular fricative (or the guttural R). In Portuguese, [ʁ] is becoming dominant in urban areas. There is also a realization as a [χ], and the original pronunciation as an [r] also remains very common in various dialects.

In Russian, /x/ is assimilated to the palatalization of the following velar consonant: лёгких [ˈlʲɵxʲkʲɪx] ⓘ . It also has a voiced allophone [ɣ], which occurs before voiced obstruents. [41] In Romanian, /h/ becomes the velar [x] in word-final positions (duh 'spirit') and before consonants (hrean 'horseradish'). [42] In Czech, the phoneme /x/ followed by a voiced obstruent can be realized as either [ɦ] or [ɣ], e.g. abych byl [abɪɣ.bɪl] ⓘ . [43]

In Kyrgyz, the consonant phoneme /k/ has a uvular realisation ([q]) in back vowel contexts. In front-vowel environments, /ɡ/ is fricativised between continuants to [ɣ], and in back vowel environments both /k/ and /ɡ/ fricativise to [χ] and [ʁ] respectively. [44] In Uyghur, the phoneme /ʁ/ occurs with a back vowel. In the Mongolian language, /x/ is usually followed by /ŋ/. [45]

The Tuu and Juu (Khoisan) languages of southern Africa have large numbers of guttural vowels. These sounds share certain phonological behaviors that warrant the use of a term specifically for them. There are scattered reports of pharyngeals elsewhere, such as in the Nilo-Saharan, Tama language.

In Swabian German, a pharyngeal approximant [ ʕ ] is an allophone of /ʁ/ in nucleus and coda positions. [46] In onsets, it is pronounced as a uvular approximant. [46] In Danish, /ʁ/ may have slight frication, and, according to Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), it may be a pharyngeal approximant [ ʕ ]. [47] In Finnish, a weak pharyngeal fricative is the realization of /h/ after the vowels /ɑ/ or /æ/ in syllable-coda position, e.g. tähti[tæħti] 'star'.

See also

Related Research Articles

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A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in the case of German ; or the side of the tongue against the molars, in the case of Welsh. This turbulent airflow is called frication.

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In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩ in the Latin script and ⟨Р⟩, ⟨p⟩ in the Cyrillic script. They are transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet by upper- or lower-case variants of Roman ⟨R⟩, ⟨r⟩: ⟨r⟩, ⟨ɾ⟩, ⟨ɹ⟩, ⟨ɻ⟩, ⟨ʀ⟩, ⟨ʁ⟩, ⟨ɽ⟩, and ⟨ɺ⟩. Transcriptions for vocalic or semivocalic realisations of underlying rhotics include the ⟨ə̯⟩ and ⟨ɐ̯⟩.

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Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and the symbol for the voiced fricative is used instead. Uvular affricates can certainly be made but are rare: they occur in some southern High-German dialects, as well as in a few African and Native American languages. Uvular consonants are typically incompatible with advanced tongue root, and they often cause retraction of neighboring vowels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharyngealization</span> Articulation of consonants or vowels

Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced pharyngeal fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʕ⟩ in IPA

The voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʕ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\. Epiglottals and epiglotto-pharyngeals are often mistakenly taken to be pharyngeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiced uvular fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʁ⟩ in IPA

The voiced uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʁ⟩, an inverted small uppercase letter ⟨ʀ⟩, or in broad transcription ⟨r⟩ if rhotic. This consonant is one of the several collectively called guttural R when found in European languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless epiglottal trill</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ʜ⟩ in IPA

The voiceless epiglottal or pharyngeal trill, or voiceless epiglottal fricative, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʜ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter h, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is H\.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless pharyngeal fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨ħ⟩ in IPA

The voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is an h-bar, ⟨ħ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is X\. In the transcription of Arabic, Berber as well as a few other scripts, it is often written ⟨Ḥ⟩, ⟨ḥ⟩.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voiceless uvular fricative</span> Consonantal sound represented by ⟨χ⟩ in IPA

The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨χ⟩, the Greek chi. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ in Americanist phonetic notation. It is sometimes transcribed with ⟨x⟩ in broad transcription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharyngeal consonant</span> Consonant articulated through the pharynx

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In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. Examples of archetypal nasal sounds include and.

In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are sonorants, as are semivowels like and, nasal consonants like and, and liquid consonants like and. This set of sounds contrasts with the obstruents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guttural R</span> Type of rhotic consonant ("r sound")

Guttural R is the phenomenon whereby a rhotic consonant is produced in the back of the vocal tract rather than in the front portion thereof and thus as a guttural consonant. Speakers of languages with guttural R typically regard guttural and coronal rhotics to be alternative pronunciations of the same phoneme, despite articulatory differences. Similar consonants are found in other parts of the world, but they often have little to no cultural association or interchangeability with coronal rhotics and are (perhaps) not rhotics at all.

Mizrahi Hebrew, or Eastern Hebrew, refers to any of the pronunciation systems for Biblical Hebrew used liturgically by Mizrahi Jews: Jews from Arab countries or east of them and with a background of Arabic, Persian or other languages of Asia. As such, Mizrahi Hebrew is actually a blanket term for many dialects.

Doubly articulated consonants are consonants with two simultaneous primary places of articulation of the same manner. They are a subset of co-articulated consonants. They are to be distinguished from co-articulated consonants with secondary articulation; that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. An example of a doubly articulated consonant is the voiceless labial–velar plosive, which is a and a pronounced simultaneously. On the other hand, the voiceless labialized velar plosive has only a single stop articulation, velar, with a simultaneous approximant-like rounding of the lips. In some dialects of Arabic, the voiceless velar fricative has a simultaneous uvular trill, but this is not considered double articulation either.

Laryngeal consonants are consonants with their primary articulation in the larynx. The laryngeal consonants comprise the pharyngeal consonants, the glottal consonants, and for some languages uvular consonants.

References

  1. ↑ Miller, Amanda (2007). "Guttural vowels and guttural co-articulation in Juǀʼhoansi". Journal of Phonetics. 35 (1): 56–84. doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2005.11.001.
  2. ↑ Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide (Second ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN   978-0226685359.
  3. ↑ Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins & John Esling (2021) Phonological potentials and the lower vocal tract
  4. ↑ See Oxford English Dictionary entry
  5. ↑ McCarthy, John J. 1989. 'Guttural Phonology', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  6. ↑ McCarthy, John J. Forthcoming. 'Guttural Transparency', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
  7. ↑ Hayward, K. M. and Hayward, R. J. 1989. '"Guttural": Arguments for a New Distinctive Feature', Transactions of the Philological Society 87: 179-193.
  8. ↑ "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?". 5 December 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Dum-Tragut (2009 :17–20)
  10. ↑ Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. ISBN   3-525-53573-2.
  11. ↑ Brock, Sebastian (2006). An Introduction to Syriac Studies. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN   1-59333-349-8.
  12. ↑ Shiraliyev, Mammadagha. The Baku Dialect. Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences Publ.: Baku, 1957; p. 41
  13. ↑ Kavitskaya 2010 , p. 10
  14. ↑ Friedrich Maurer uses the term Istvaeonic instead of Franconian; see Friedrich Maurer (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Bern: Verlag Francke.
  15. ↑ For a history of the German consonants see Fausto Cercignani, The Consonants of German: Synchrony and Diachrony, Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
  16. ↑ Boeder (2002), p. 3
  17. ↑ Boeder (2005), p. 6
  18. ↑ Gamkrelidze (1966), p. 69
  19. ↑ Fähnrich & Sardzhveladze (2000)
  20. ↑ Habib, Abdul (1967). The Two Thousand Years Old Language of Afghanistan or The Mother of Dari Language (An Analysis of the Baghlan Inscription) (PDF). Historical Society of Afghanistan. p. 6.
  21. ↑ Lazard, Gilbert, "Pahlavi, Pârsi, dari: Les langues d'Iran d'apès Ibn al-Muqaffa" in R.N. Frye, Iran and Islam. In Memory of the late Vladimir Minorsky, Edinburgh University Press, 1971.
  22. ↑ Bauer, Michael Blas na Gàidhlig - The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation (2011) Akerbeltz ISBN   978-1-907165-00-9
  23. ↑ A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3
  24. ↑ John C. Wells (1982), Accents of English, Cambridge University Press, p. 390, ISBN   9780521285407
  25. ↑ Brenzinger (2007 :128)
  26. ↑ Chaker (1996 :4–5)
  27. ↑ Abdel-Massih (1971b :11)
  28. ↑ Creissels (2006 :3–4)
  29. ↑ Richard Hayward, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse, 2000, African Languages
  30. ↑ Savà, Graziano; Tosco, Mauro (2003). "The classification of Ongota". In Bender, M. Lionel; et al. (eds.). Selected comparative-historical Afrasian linguistic studies. LINCOM Europa.
  31. ↑ Sands, Bonny (2009). "Africa's Linguistic Diversity". Language and Linguistics Compass. 3 (2): 559–580. doi:10.1111/j.1749-818x.2008.00124.x.
  32. ↑ Haig, Geoffrey; Yaron Matras (2002). "Kurdish linguistics: a brief overview" (PDF). Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung. Berlin. 55 (1): 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  33. ↑ Hewitt, George (2004). Introduction to the Study of the Languages of the Caucasus. Munich: Lincom Europaq. p. 49.
  34. ↑ Plaster, Keith; et al. Noun classes grow on trees: noun classification in the North-East Caucasus. Language and Representations (Tentative). Retrieved 20 April 2013.
  35. ↑ Nichols, J. 1997 Nikolaev and Starostin's North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary and the Methodology of Long-Range Comparison: an assessment Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Non-Slavic Languages (NSL) Conference, Chicago, 8–10 May 1997.
  36. ↑ Row 7 in Приложение 6: Население Российской Федерации по владению языками [Appendix 6: Population of the Russian Federation by languages used] (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLS) on 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2015-02-21.
  37. ↑ "First Nations Culture Areas Index". the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
  38. ↑ Jorgensen, Joseph G. (1969). Salishan language and culture. Language science monographs. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University. p. 105.
  39. ↑ Kaufman, Stephen (1997), "Aramaic", in Hetzron, Robert (ed.), The Semitic Languages, Routledge, pp. 117–119.
  40. ↑ Garnier, Romain; Jacques, Guillaume (2012). "A neglected phonetic law: The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North-West Semitic". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 75 (1): 135–145. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.395.1033 . doi:10.1017/s0041977x11001261. S2CID   16649580.
  41. ↑ Аванесов, Р. И. (1984). Русское литературное произношение. М.: Просвещение. pp. 145–167.
  42. ↑ Ovidiu Drăghici. "Limba Română contemporană. Fonetică. Fonologie. Ortografie. Lexicologie" (PDF). Retrieved April 19, 2013.[ permanent dead link ]
  43. ↑ Kučera, H. (1961). The Phonology of Czech. s’ Gravenhage: Mouton & Co.
  44. ↑ Кызласов И. Л., Рунические письменности евразийских степей (Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, ISBN   5-02-017741-5, with further bibliography.
  45. ↑ Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson. "Vowels in Mongolian speech: deletions and epenthesis" . Retrieved 2014-07-26.
  46. 1 2 Markus Hiller. "Pharyngeals and "lax" vowel quality" (PDF). Mannheim: Institut für Deutsche Sprache. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-28.
  47. ↑ Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996 :323)

Bibliography

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