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

IPA symbols

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicated by one of two methods:

Computing codes

Since Unicode 1.1, there have been two similar superscript characters: IPA ⟨ˤ⟩ and Semiticist ⟨ˁ⟩. U+02E4 is formally a superscript ⟨ʕ⟩ (, = reversed glottal stop), and in the Unicode charts looks like a simple superscript ⟨ʕ⟩, though in some fonts it looks like a superscript reversed lower-case letter glottal stop ⟨ɂ⟩. U+02C1 is a typographic alternative to ⟨ʿ⟩ ; which is used to transliterate the Semitic consonant ayin and which = reversed ⟨ʾ⟩, which itself transliterates the glottal Semitic consonants aleph and hamza. In the Unicode charts U+02C1 looks like a reversed ⟨ˀ⟩, which is used in the IPA for glottalization. There is no parallel Unicode distinction for modifier glottal stop. The IPA Handbook lists U+02E4 as the Unicode equivalent of IPA Number 423, the dedicated IPA symbol for pharyngealization. The superimposed tilde is assigned Unicode character U+0334. This was originally intended to combine with other letters to represent pharyngealization. However, that usage is now deprecated (though still functional), and several precomposed letters have been adopted to replace it. These are the labial consonants ⟨ᵱ ᵬ ᵮ ᵯ⟩ and the coronal consonants ⟨ᵵ ᵭ ᵴ ᵶ ᵰ ᵲ ᵳ ɫ⟩.

Usage

The most well known language to use pharyngealization is Arabic where the standard four emphatic consonants ⟨ص⟩, ⟨ض⟩, ⟨ط⟩ and ⟨ظ⟩ are distinct from their plain counterparts ⟨س⟩, ⟨د⟩, ⟨ت⟩ and ⟨ذ⟩. Other pharyngealized sounds like, and also appear in a number of dialects. Arabic and Syriac use secondary uvularization, which is generally not distinguished from pharyngealization, for the "emphatic" coronal consonants. Ubykh, an extinct Northwest Caucasian language spoken in Russia and Turkey, used pharyngealization in 14 pharyngealized consonants. Chilcotin has pharyngealized consonants that trigger pharyngealization of vowels. Many languages (such as Salishan, Sahaptian) in the Plateau culture area of North America also have pharyngealization processes that are triggered by pharyngeal or pharyngealized consonants, which affect vowels. The Tuu/"Khoisan" language Taa (or !Xóõ) has pharyngealized vowels that contrast phonemically with voiced, breathy and epiglottalized vowels. That feature is represented in the orthography by a tilde under the respective pharyngealized vowel. In Tuu languages, epiglottalized vowels are phonemic. For many languages, pharyngealization is generally associated with more dental articulations of coronal consonants. Dark l tends to be dental or denti-alveolar, but clear l tends to be retracted to an alveolar position.

Examples of pharyngealized consonants

(Uvularized consonants are not distinguished.)

Stops

Fricatives

Affricates

Trills

Nasals

Approximants

Examples of pharyngealized vowels