# Voiced pharyngeal fricative

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.
Although traditionally placed in the fricative row of the IPA chart, [ʕ] is usually an approximant. The IPA symbol itself is ambiguous, but no language is known to make a phonemic distinction between fricatives and approximants at this place of articulation.
The IPA letter ⟨ʕ⟩ is caseless. Capital ⟨꟎⟩ and lower-case ⟨꟏⟩ are pending at Unicode U+A7CE and U+A7CF.

## Features

Features of the voiced pharyngeal approximant fricative:
* Its manner of articulation varies between approximant and fricative, which means it is produced by narrowing the vocal tract at the place of articulation, but generally not enough to produce much turbulence in the airstream. Languages do not distinguish voiced fricatives from approximants produced in the throat.
* Its place of articulation is pharyngeal, which means it is articulated with the tongue root against the back of the throat (the pharynx).
* Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
* It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
* It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
* 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

Pharyngeal consonants are not widespread. Sometimes, a pharyngeal approximant develops from a uvular approximant. Many languages that have been described as having pharyngeal fricatives or approximants turn out on closer inspection to have epiglottal consonants instead. For example, the candidate /ʕ/ sound in Arabic and standard Hebrew (not modern Hebrew – Israelis generally pronounce this as a glottal stop) has been variously described as a voiced epiglottal fricative [ʢ], an epiglottal approximant [ʕ̞], or a pharyngealized glottal stop [ʔˤ].
| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Abaza | Abaza | гӀапынхъамыз/g'apynkh"amyz | [ʕaːpənqaːməz] | 'March' | |
| Afar | Afar | damaqtu | [dʌmʌʕtu] | 'male baboon' | |
| Arabic | Arabic | اَلْـعَـرَبِيَّةُ/al-ʽarabiyya | [alʕaraˈbijːa] | 'Arabic' | See Arabic phonology |
| Assyrian | Eastern | ܬܪܥܐ/täroa | [tʌrʕɑ] | 'door' | The majority of the speakers will pronounce the word as [tʌrɑ]. |
| Assyrian | Western | ܬܪܥܐ/täroa | [tʌrʕɔ] | 'door' | |
| Avar | Avar | гӀоркь/g'ork' | [ʕortɬʼː] | 'handle' | |
| Chechen | Chechen | Ӏан/jan/عـآن | | 'winter' | |
| Coeur d'Alene | Coeur d'Alene | stʕin | [stʕin] | 'antelope' | |
| Danish | Standard | ravn | [ʕ̞ɑ̈wˀn] | 'raven' | An approximant; also described as uvular [ʁ]. See Danish phonology |
| Dhao | Dhao | [ʕaa] | [ʕaa] | 'and' | Phonetic status is not clear, but it has "extremely limited distribution". It may not be pronounced at all or be realized as a glottal stop. |
| Dutch | Limburg | rad | [ʕ̞ɑt] | 'wheel' | An approximant; a possible realization of /r/. Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology |
| French | Côte d'Ivoire | rapide | [ʕ̞äpɪd] | 'fast' | An approximant; a possible realization of /r/. Can also be realized as a trill (ʢ). |
| German | Some speakers | Mutter | [ˈmutɔʕ̞] | 'mother' | An approximant; occurs in East Central Germany, Southwestern Germany, parts of Switzerland and in Tyrol. See Standard German phonology |
| German | Swabian dialect | ändard | [ˈend̥aʕ̞d̥] | 'changes' | An approximant. It's an allophone of /ʁ/ in nucleus and coda positions; pronounced as a uvular approximant in onsets. |
| Hebrew | Iraqi | עִבְרִית/ʿivrît | [ʕibˈriːθ] | 'Hebrew language' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hebrew | Sephardi | עִבְרִית/ʿivrît | [ʕivˈɾit] | 'Hebrew language' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hebrew | Yemenite | עִבְרִית/ʿivrît | | 'Hebrew language' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Ingush | Ingush | Iаддал | [ʕaddal] | 'Archer' | |
| Judaeo-Spanish | Haketia | ˁagzan | [ʕaɡˈzan] | 'lazy' | Borrowed from Arabic and Hebrew |
| Kabyle | Kabyle | ɛemmi | [ʕəmːi] | 'my (paternal) uncle' | |
| Kurdish | Kurmanji | ewr/'ewr | [ʕɜwr] | 'cloud' | The sound is usually not written in the Latin alphabet, but ⟨'⟩ can be used. |
| Khalaj | Standard | yâan | [jɑːɑ̯n] | 'side' | |
| Luwati | Luwati | قلـعـة | [qilʕa] | 'castle' | Used in Arabic loanwords |
| Malay | Kedah | باکـر/bakar | [ba.kaʕ] | 'burn' | Allophone of /r/ as word-final coda. Could be voiced velar fricative [ɣ] for some speakers. |
| Nuu-chah-nulth | Nuu-chah-nulth | ʕiiniƛ | [ʕiːnitɬ] | 'dog' | May be a plosive /ʡ/ |
| Occitan | Southern Auvergnat | pala | [ˈpaʕa] | 'shovel' | See Occitan phonology |
| Okanagan | Okanagan | ʕaymt | [ʕajmt] | 'angry' | |
| Somali | Somali | cunto/𐒋𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒙 | [ʕunto] | 'food' | See Somali phonology |
| Sioux | Stoney | marazhud | [maʕazud] | 'rain' | |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | голос | [ˈʕɔlos] | 'voice' | Also described as glottal [ɦ]. See Ukrainian phonology |