Properties of Consonants

<r> /ɹ/ , and < l > /l/ are called liquids. See more on liquids in my notes.

UKT: Burmese-Myanmar equivalents are:
   {a.wag}-aksharas: {ya. ra. la. wa.}
They are all considered to be all consonants.

Two-way transliteration between English and Myanmar (UKT 070901)
approximants: {ya.} {ra.} {la.} {wa.}	glides/ semivowels: {ya.} {wa.}	<y>:  /j/ {ya.}; /i/ {i}
		<w>: /w/ {wa.}; /u/ {u}
	liquids: {ra.} {la.}	<r>:  /r/ {ra.} (Rakhine); /ɹ/ {ya.} (Bama)
		<l>: /l/ {la.}; /ɫ/ {la.that}; /ɬ/ {lha.}

The terms 'approximants' and 'semivowels' should be contrasted. See semivowels in my notes

UKT: No mention of "approximants" is found in UNIL's Consonants file. Neither is it found on its Index file. And so, it is probable that UNIL does not use the word "approximant" for the consonants. However, it uses spirants for some of the consonants listed as "fricatives".

Because 4 out of 5 aksharas in row r6, has been described as approximants, I will describe the {a.wag}-characters as "generally approximants". The exception are {tha.}, and {ha.}: they are fricatives.

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Affricates

Affricates can be seen as a sequence of a stop and a fricative which have the same or similar places of articulation. They are transcribed using the symbols for the stop and the fricative. If one wants to emphasize the affricate as a "single" sound, a tie symbol can be used to join the stop and the fricative (sometimes the fricative is written as a superscript). See affricate in my notes.

Affricates given in Table of English Consonants on DJPD16 p.x are: /ʧ/ and /ʤ/.

UKT: Burmese-Myanmar medials: {kya. hkya. gya.} are said to be affricates. (Please note that in Burmese-Myanmar, spelling and pronunciation are the same or almost the same.).

If we are to follow the /t/ to /ʃ/ sequence in Burmese-Myanmar would be:

{ta.} + {a.that} + {rha.} --> {trha.}
{ta.} + {a.that} + {þhya.} --> {tþhya.} (note I have used {þa.} "the thorn" in the place of {rha.})
-- articulations which we would not be able to make.

Similarly the sequence /d/ to /ʒ/ :

{da.} + {a.that} + {zya.}(?) --> {dzya.}
-- articulation which we would not be able to make.

And, therefore, I cannot agree with the usual notation of {kya.} as /ʧ/ , and {gya.} as /ʤ/.

This has given me to doubt, whether Burmese-Myanmar has any affricates of the type /ʧ/ and /ʤ/. Of course there might be others.

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2. Nasality

UKT: I have rewritten this little section based on material from Univ. of Manitoba, and Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasality download 070830.
See also Nasality downloaded from Wikipedia in my notes
See also Secondary articulations in a later section.

In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the soft palate (velum) is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. As was the case with the vocal cords, what the soft palate is doing is independent of the other articulators. The effect is as if an <n> /n/ sound were produced simultaneously with the oral sound. For almost any place of articulation, there are pairs of stops that differ only in whether the soft palate is raised, as in the oral stops <t d> /t d/, or lowered, as in the nasal stop <n> /n/.

In the IPA, nasalization is indicated by printing a tilde above the symbol for the sound to be nasalized: /ã/ is the nasalized equivalent of /a/, and [ṽ] is the nasalized equivalent of [v].

UKT: Is the above example: /a/ --> /ã/ , the same as using {thé:thé:ting} as in the following?
   {a.} --> {än}
I think it is. But, I will reserve my judgment for the moment.

However, the Spanish [Ñ/ñ] are supposed to be letters in their own right, and not just nasalised versions of [N/n] with tildes above the symbols. (I have chosen {Ña.} to represent r2c5 character just as an ASCII character, and not as a nasalized {Na.}.) 

An older IPA subscript diacritic [ą], called an ogonek, is still seen, especially when the vowel bears tone marks that would interfer with the superscript tilde. [ą̂], for example, is more legible in most fonts than [ã̂].

Phonologically speaking, nothing prevents from describing nasals stops such as /ŋ/, /n/ or /m/ as the nasalized counterpart of voiced oral stops. In theory, these nasal consonants could therefore perfectly be represented as, respectively, / g̃ /, / d̃ / or / b̃ /. The only reason why these nasal consonants have their own symbol is their frequency in the world's languages – in contrast, for example, with the nasal(ized) constrictives (e.g., [ṽ]). Nasal stops are called stops because airflow through the mouth is blocked, but air flows freely through the nose.

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Nasals

There are only three nasals in English: /ŋ  n  m/

Burmese-Myanmar nasals (from r1c5 to r5c5), and Devanagari nasals:
{nga. Ña. Na. na. ma.} / [ṅa  ña  ṇa  na  ma]

UNIL:
The nasal “occlusives” of the vast majority of the world's languages are voiced. Voiceless nasals exists but they and their symbols are not included below.
   During the production of these nasal “occlusives”, the soft palate is lowered to a greater or lesser extent, allowing a portion of the air stream to pass through the nasal cavity. Occlusion occurs in the mouth only; the nasal resonance is continuous. Indeed, many linguists rank the nasals among the continuants.

Seven nasal consonants are described by UNIL
(I have changed the order from IPA to akshara. The direction taken by the akshara POA is from interior towards the lips. In the akshara matrix, these characters are in column 5 of the {wag} section, and the direction is from row r1 to row r6. I have given Unicode numbers for all characters used.):
Uvular: /ɴ / ("small cap N" U0274)
Velar: /ŋ/ (U014B) -- identified with {nga.}
Palatal: /ɲ/ (U0272) -- identified with {Ña.}
Retroflex: /ɳ / (U0273) (with the retroflex hook) -- identified with {Na.}
Alveolar or dental: /n/ (U006E) -- identified with {na.}
Labio-dental: /ɱ/ (U0271) -- as with other labio-dentals /f, v/, this is not in Burmese-Myanmar
Bilabial: /m/ (U006D)

This brought out one property of the Burmese-Myanmar akshara: the most contrastive sounds are {nga.} and {pa.}

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3. Laterality

See also Secondary articulations and Lip movements in later sections.

UNIL: Laterals are generally considered to be a special case, since physically speaking they could be grouped among the fricatives and spirants.

See Pronouncing [ l ] in English in my notes.

UKT: English has only one lateral consonant [ l ], and they have a hard time pronouncing the Welsh names. They ended up using [ ll ] (double L). The following is from DJPD16 p318
   In Welsh words, [ ll ] may be pronounced by English speakers in a variety of different ways. In this dictionary [DJPD16], we [authors of DJPD16] suggest / hl / (note: h is italicized, but l is not) , which stands both for the phonetic [ɬ] used in Welsh and for the English approximation of either a voiceless or voiced [ l ], and also for the variant /θl/ for British English speakers, e.g.:

<Llanberis> /hlænˈber.ɪs , θlæn-/ (US) /hlæn-/

I remember my favorite junior grade school teacher, Miss Annie deSilva, whenever I came across the inability of English to pronounce Welsh names. The name was Llywelyn, and Miss Annie was teaching us the story of Prince Llywelyn and his faithful dog. See the story in my notes. Miss Annie was an Anglo born in Myanmar. Being half-Burmese, she should not have any difficulty in pronouncing [ll] sounds, which in Burmese-Myanmar is {lha.} ({la. ha.hto:). It was probable that she had not been to England (and Wales) when she was teaching us, and obviously none had told her that Myanmars could pronounce this word very well. She ended up pronouncing it as a single [ l ] telling us that Welsh names were very hard to pronounce.

Native English-speakers from Britain and North America (those I have met in person) find it impossible to pronounce Burmese names such as Ma Hla (Miss pretty). And so, I am certain that they are "phoneme-deaf" to the sound of {lha.} in [Hla]. However, I was not sure how to represent it in IPA. Then, came the Internet and after listening to the audio-files from UCLA and UNIL, both Daw Than Than and I have come to the conclusion that the Burmese consonantal sound in the name Hla is /ɬ/ (U026C). (That was before the DJPD16 came into my hands.)

My father, U Tun Pe, told me the story of one old Indian office superintendent in the Public Health Department of Insein District, whom my father knew quite well. The time would be in the 1920's, when Myanmar was in the British Empire. At that time one small town by the name Hlegu was in the Insein District. The old Indian, a Hindi speaker, always complained: "Why isn't the name of town "Legu"? He always pronounced the name as /'hə.leːguː/ (I am sure of only the first part of my transcription). Obviously, the Hindi-speaker couldn't pronounce /ɬ/ . The spelling of the town in Romabama is: {læÑ:ku:} pronounced as /{lhè:ku:}/.

When you form an [ l ], your tongue tip touches your alveolar ridge (or maybe your upper teeth) but it doesn't create a stop because one or both sides of the tongue are lowered so that air can flow out along the side. Sounds like this with airflow along the sides of the tongue are called lateral, all others are called central (though we usually just assume that a sound is central unless we explicitly say it's lateral).

UNIL: They are called laterals since, during their production, the back of the tongue makes contact with the hard palate while the front of the tongue sinks down, channeling the air laterally around the tongue, down the side (or sometimes both sides) of the mouth (Fig. 3.25) (UKT: Fig.3.25 is the same as Fig.3.13b except for the caption.). (On the other hand, for non-lateral articulations, the back of the tongue rests against the top molars, and the air flows over the tongue down the center of the mouth.)
   There are two distinct types of laterals:
• Lateral fricatives, where the articulation, requiring a great deal of muscular tension, resembles that of the fricatives (except for the position of the tongue);
• Non-fricative lateral, often called liquids (liquid consonants), whose articulation is very close to the spirants.
   The location of the lateral channel through which the air flows is unimportant: whether it is on the left, the right, or both sides of the mouth, the nature of the sound produced is unchanged.

The side of the tongue can lower to different degrees. It can lower so little that the air passing through becomes turbulent (giving a lateral fricative like [ɬ] (U026C) or [ɮ] (U026E)) or it can lower enough for there to be no turbulence (a lateral approximant). The [l] of English is a lateral approximant.

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Laterals

UKT: After the section on Nasality, we have looked into the Nasals. Similarly, after the section on Laterality, we should be looking into Laterals. The following is my collection from different sources, but mainly from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_consonant download 070901.

Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue.

Most commonly the tip of the tongue makes contact with the upper teeth (see dental consonant) or the upper gum (the alveolar ridge) just behind the teeth (see alveolar consonant). English has only one lateral /l/ (equivalent of Burmese-Myanmar {la.}), and because of this, native-English speakers have difficulty in pronouncing Welsh names spelled with double-L: /ɬ/ (equivalent of Burmese-Myanmar {lha.}. The most common laterals are approximants and belong to the class of liquids.

English has one lateral phoneme: the lateral approximant /l/, which in many accents has two allophones. One, found before vowels as in lady or fly, is called clear l, pronounced as the alveolar lateral approximant [l] with a "neutral" position of the body of the tongue. The other variant, so-called dark l found before consonants or word-finally, as in bold or tell, is pronounced as the velarized alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ] (equivalent of "killed {la.}", found only in the coda, and is not pronounced) with the tongue assuming a spoon-like shape with its back part raised, which gives the sound a [w]- or [ʟ]-like resonance.

UKT: English has only one lateral, whereas Burmese has several. To answer the question whether this is a trait of a Tibeto-Burman language, I have looked into Proto-Tibeto-Burman (PTB) and modern Tibeto-Burman group of languages, and have found in http://stedt.berkeley.edu/pdf/JAM/DinguistDilemma-2006.pdf download 071019. (note: it appears that *represents a softening of a consonant -- I need to check some more. I will have to go into this paper because, it also deals with the languages of many ethnic groups of Myanmar.)
"The apical consonants, [l], [d], and [n] are quite similar in articulatory terms, all voiced sounds involving the occlusion of the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge or the back of the upper teeth. Many languages show dialectal variation among these sounds. There is, e.g., a well-known tribe of American Natives (Indians) known variously as Dakota, Lakota, or Nakota."

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Multiple articulations

Multiple articulations are often classified as double articulations and secondary articulations on the basis of whether the two constrictions are equal in degree.

Double articulations

Double articulations are those cases where the two constriction gestures have an equal degree of constriction:

1. both are stops. Several African languages have "labio-velar" stops -- doubly articulated bilabial and velar stops.
2. both are fricatives. A simultaneous [ ʃ  ] and [x] occurs in so vastly many of the world's languages (namely Swedish) that IPA gives it its own symbol: [ɧ] (U0267)

Double articulations without their own symbol can be transcribed by giving the symbols for each articulation and putting the tie symbol above them.

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Secondary articulations

See also secondary articulations Wiki (and subsections) downloaded from Wikipedia in my notes.
• palatalization Wiki

Secondary articulations are approximants that are articulated at the same time as a stop or a fricative (or a lateral approximant), which is the primary articulation. Secondary articulations are often closely related to vowels.

The common secondary articulations are:

• labialization, a simultaneous [w].
   See labialization in my notes. (to be compared to {wa.hswè:} formation)
• palatalization, a simultaneous [ j ].
   See palatalization in my notes. (to be compared to {ya.ping.} and {ra.ris} formation)
• velarization, a simultaneous [ɰ], symbolized by a superscript Greek letter gamma (the voiced velar fricative).
• pharyngealization, a simultaneous pharyngeal approximant, symbolized by a superscript [ʕ] (the voiced pharyngeal approximant).

Velarization and pharyngealization can also both be marked by a tilde through the consonant, as we have seen in the symbol for the dark L, [ɫ].

UKT: I have added some more downloaded from Wikipedia.
• glottalization

English consonants can have secondary articulations through assimilation to a neighbouring vowel. It is possible for languages to contrast consonants with a secondary articulation and consonants without.
• Slavic languages typically contrast palatalized consonants with non-palatalized (sometimes velarized) consonants. So does Gaelic.
• Arabic contrasts pharyngealized and non-pharyngealized consonants.
• Nisga'a contrasts labialized and non-labialized (often palatalized) velar consonants. So did proto-Indo-European.

Examples these in English, that can be applied to Burmese-Myanmar are:

• [w] {wa.} : a simultaneous dorso-velar approximant and bilabial approximant (or lip rounding in Lip movements).

• dark [ɫ] (U026B) (UKT: can it be ɬ (U026C)?): a simultaneous apico-alveolar lateral approximant and dorso-velar central approximant. We have already come across lateral approximant [l] in Laterality. I first came across the terms 'clear L' and 'dark L' in DJPD16, and I was unable to see what they really are, until I realised that English speakers are unable to articulate the [l] sounds found in Burmese-Myanmar. They are unable to distinguish between {la.}, {lha.}, {lwa.},  {lhwa.}, {lya.}, and {lhya.}. In fact, they cannot correctly pronounce the [ ll ] found in Welsh names.

• [ɹ]: simultanous postalveolar approximant, pharyngeal approximant, and lip rounding.

It is obvious that the secondary articulations that can be done by the Burmese speakers, the English speakers, and the Hindi speakers are different. I wonder if it is the "phonetic-version" of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis that is quite well-known in Linguistics. See Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (SWH) in my notes.

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Lip movements

UKT: Ventriloquism show that you can speak without moving your lips, and is exactly the opposite of what we are going to say in this section.

ventriloquism also ventriloquy n. 1. The art of projecting one's voice so that it seems to come from another source, as from a wooden figure. [From Latin ventriloquus speaking from the belly Latin venter ventr-belly loquī  to speak; See tolk w - in Indo-European Roots.] -- AHTD

Though we are not hearing "challenged", all the ESL learners who are exposed to English only after the onset of puberty should consider themselves as "phoneme-deaf" (my term based on "colour-blindness"). As humans, we were born with the ability to hear and speak all the human languages: an ability that distinguishes us from the animals. However, that ability starts to diminish at about the age 6, and is completely gone by the time we get to the teens. This observation has been well documented from the study of feral children (or "wolf" children). By practicing correct lip movements, you can improve your pronunciation. The following is from a web-site dealing with lip movements for the hearing impaired www.uri.edu/comm_service/cued_speech/pg4efa.html (I have changed /.../ to [...] to conform to TIL usage) :

"When lip movements provide the best visual information for the hearing impaired these movements are precise but not exaggerated. Lips are spread towards a smile for the vowels in "Beet," "bit," "bait," and "bet"; the lip opening is rather square for the vowels in "bat," "bite," and "Bart"; they become progressively rounded for the vowels in "bought," "boat," "book," and "boot"; slightly pursed for "Burt; and neutral for the vowels in "but" and "above." Lip movements are quite visible for the consonants [p], [b], [m], [w], [wh], [f], [v], [sh], and [zh].

"The teeth play a visual role for consonant phonemes [f], [v], [th] (voiced), and [xh] (unvoiced <th> as in <thick>). Teeth are closest to occlusion for [s] and [z] and widest apart for [a], [ah], and [aw]. Usually the tongue tip is seen when articulating the two <th> phonemes, and the underside of the tongue tip is sometimes visible for [t], [d], [n], [ l ], [ch], [ j ], [y], and possibly [r]. It is difficult to see the underside of the tongue tip for [s] and [z] because the teeth are so close together for these sounds. The back-of-tongue vowels and consonants [k], [g], and [ng] are invisible unless you hold a powerful flashlight at just the right angle and the mouth is wide open. Forget them!

"If you have access to a video camcorder, photograph yourself saying the test sentences. Then, with the sound turned off, check the play-back carefully for possible visual confusions or ask someone else to watch the tape and monitor you. If you don't have access to a video recorder, watch yourself in a mirror or have someone watch you who can't hear very well. You might run the vacuum cleaner for masking noise.
• [ee]-[ur]          1. "I lost a sheet. I lost a shirt."
• [a]-[oo]-[ue]    2. "Watch your back. Watch your book Watch your bike."
• [aw]-[e]-[ue]   3. "That's my lawn. That's my Len. That's my loon."
• [ah]-[oh]-[uh]  4. "It's your cart. It's your coat. It's your cut."
• [aw-i]-[e-i]      5. "Joy was with us. Jay was with us."
• [ah-i]-[ah-oo] 6. "Won't you come dine with us? Won't you come down with us?"
• [m]-[f]-[t]         7. "You can take it. You can make it. You can fake it."
• [h]-[s]-[r]         8. "Will you hide with us? Will you ride with us? Will you side with us?"
• [p]-[d]-[zh]      9. "There's a pimple on your chin. There's a dimple on your chin."
                         10. "Ada is interesting. Asia is interesting."
• [th]-[z]-[k]      11. "The clothing sale is Friday. The closing
             -[v]             sale is Friday.
                         12. "You can't hack it. You can't have it."
• [b]-[n]-[wh]   13. "He saw a whale. He saw a bale. He saw a nail."
• [l]-[w]-[sh]     14. "Lee will do it. She will do it. We will do it."
• [j]-[g]-[zh]      15. "Your bag is ready. Your bath is ready. Your badge is ready."
• [ch]-[y]-[ng]  16. "I played yesterday." I played chess today.
              ;           17. I'm not a ring salesman. I'm not a rich salesman."

"Assuming that one doesn't have an articulation problem of some kind, what can be done to improve the visibility of speech movements?

1. Speak as clearly and precisely as you can with good muscle tonus in your lips and tongue tip. Do not exaggerate vertical jaw movements. One way to become aware of good muscle tonus and clear articulation is to "say" the diagnostic sentences 1-17 with absolutely no voice or breath. DON'T WHISPER! Simple articulate the sentences. You'll discover that you can feel what you're doing. Focus your articulation energy forward on the lips and tongue tip. Under no circumstances should you do this exercise in the presence of a hearing impaired individual. Merely mouthing words while cueing is not recommended unless you are a interpreting for someone who is speaking to the Deaf. Mouthing words while cueing can affect the synchronization of your Cued SPeech if you aren't very careful. Auditory feedback is an important aid to your own synchronization. Mouthing sentences without voice also cheats the hearing-impaired individual out of the benefits of whatever residual hearing he/she has.

2. Emphasize lip rounding of the back vowels such as [aw] in "caught," [oh] in "coat," [oo] in "cook," and [ue] in "cool." Failure to round the lips for these sounds is a very common sight in people with sloppy articulation.

3. Spread your lips towards a smile for the high front vowels such as [ee] in "feet," [ i ] in "fit", the diphthong [ay] in "fate," and the [e] in "bet." The lip spread becomes less pronounced as you approach the /e/.

4. Pay special attention to the lip/tongue/jaw movements of consonants which are potentially most visible: [p], [b], [m], [w], [wh], [f], [v], [sh], [zh], [t], [d], [n], and [ l ].

5. One should consider objectively the consequences of wearing anything around the mouth when the purpose is primarily cosmetic rather than corrective. No arbitrary pronouncement concerning moustaches or beards is appropriate because there are too many variables involved. Some men with expressive, mobile faces who wear carefully trimmed moustaches or beards are easy to speech-read. Others who wear no hair around the face at all are difficult to speech-read. But one would hope that in any personal conflict between cosmetics and communication, the needs of oral communication would be met first. By the same token, people who restrict lip movements to mask unsightly teeth should be advised to consult a good dentist. Recent advances in cosmetic dentistry might solve that particular dilemma very nicely.

6. Those with complex problems related to visual information from speech movements should consult either a speech/language pathologist, an audiologist trained in aural rehabilitation, or a teacher of speechreading. Obviously the best professional to consult is one who knows Cued Speech, because this person will know which movements are critical and which are not. An actual case will help to explain the point being made. One parent of a deaf child was both a competent cuer and an excellent speaker. No articulation problems of any kind were apparent when we listened to this parent. It was only when we watched this person cue-and-speak without sound that we detected a discrepancy: [r] phonemes always looked like /w/ phonemes on the lips. Did this pose a critical oral language reception problem for the deaf child? No, because visually different hand cues for [r] and [w] provided the necessary distinction. Clinical intervention was unnecessary. But one wonders what the diagnosis would have been if the "problem" had been discovered by an articulatio or speech-reading specialist who was unfamiliar with the dynamics of Cued Speech."

By watching yourself speak in a mirror, or by practicing the lip movement in front of a camcorder, you will find that your pronunciation has much improved.

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Consonant chart

Fully describing a consonant involves answering each of the seven questions discussed earlier, that is, specifying the consonant for each of the parameters:
1. active articulator
2. passive articulator
3. constriction degree
4. state of glottis
5. nasality
6. laterality
7. airstream mechanism

If we want to list consonants in a chart, there's an immediate problem: there are seven dimensions in which consonants can differ from each other, but only two dimensions in which a printed chart can arrange them.

There's a traditional way of dealing drawing consonant charts that deals with the problem relatively well. The general approach is used in the official IPA consonant chart and in the charts in the textbook.

• The horizontal dimension is place of articulation -- each column has a common combination of active and passive articulators.
• Whenever two symbols occupy the same cell of the table, they differ only in voicing. The voiceless consonant is always the one to the left. E.g., the bilabial plosive cell has "p b".
• All other "manner of articulation" parameters are squeezed into the vertical dimension, not always elegantly. You will find rows for, among other things:
   • plosives (i.e., oral stops)
   • nasals (i.e., nasal stops)
   • fricatives
   • (central) approximants
   • lateral approximants

Some charts have a row for affricates (e.g., the chart below from DJPD16). The IPA consonant chart doesn't -- you can always get the affricate symbol by putting together the plosive and the fricative symbols in the relevant column.

Table of English Consonants

UKT:
• If only /θ/ (U03B8 - non-ASCII character) could be substituted with /þ/ (Alt0254 - ASCII character), confusion over {tha.} would be solved. We could unequivocally state that {tha.} is Old English 'thorn' [þ].
• If only we could introduce palatal /ç/ (Alt0231 - ASCII character), confusion over {sa.} would be solved. We could unequivocally state that {sa.} is French 'c with cedilla' [ç].

In the Burmese consonant system there are four consonants for each of the following pairs.

According to Rev. U Kawwida of Toronto Myanmar Buddhist monastery, the Burmese consonants {ga.} and {Ga.} sounds almost the same to layman Myanmars. However, the Myanmar monks are taught to pronounce them differently when reciting Pali. Of the two {Ga.} has an {ha.} sound at the end. {Ga.} is the Burmese-Myanmar equivalent of Hindi-Devanagari घ (U0918 Devanagari letter Gha.

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Table of IPA Consonants

Go back to tab-IPA-con-b | tab-IPA-con-b2 | English-r-b

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Table of Devanagari Consonants

From:
Indian Script Code for Information Interchange, ISCII
http://varamozhi.sourceforge.net/iscii91.pdf

Go back tab-dev-con-b | dev-b

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UKT notes

affricate

English has the affricates /ʧ/ (U02A7) and /ʤ/ (U02A4). The stop and the fricative halves of these affricates are at the same place of articulation: the stop is in fact post-alveolar rather than alveolar. We could be explicit about this and underline the /t/ and /d/ (in IPA, a minus sign under a symbol is a diacritic meaning "pronounced further back in the mouth"), but most phoneticians believe this difference in the place of articulation is so predictable that it doesn't have to be marked.

Some North American authors use č (U010D) in place of [ʧ] (U02A7).

I am surprise how /ʧ/ has been arrived at. It seems, it has been arrived at starting from the first part /t/ (stop) and then moving to the /ʃ/ (fricative) part.

However, in pronouncing [ky], we do not start from /t/. We start from /k/ (velar) or further back from /q/ (uvular). Or, you may start from /c/ (palatal) (Note: [c] here is not the [c] of Pali-Latin, and the pronunciation of [k]. [c] of Pali-Latin has the pronunciation of [s], and should have been written as [ç]). And then move to the /j/ part. Please let me emphasize that it is a [/k/ to /j/] sequence. Since, /j/ is an approximant and not a fricative, I do not think {kya.} should be called an affricate even though it sounds like /ʧ /, an affricate. It should be represented as /kʲ/ not by any other symbol. Moreover, it should not be pronounced as /kə.ya/.

When I asked Zev Handel, Assoc. Prof. of Chinese Language and Linguistics, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, he chided me for "confusing written forms with spoken language ... an affricate is a phonological unit; it exists only in speech. We can only say that a letter or sequence of letters REPRESENTS an affricate within a particular orthographic system. ... If the graphic sequence <ky> is PRONOUNCED [tS], then it is an affricate. If it is PRONOUNCED [kj], then it is not. The dialect of Burmese described on this page [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language#Phonology download 070831] has affricates -- they appear in the middle of the top row.  These are the sounds represented in the orthography with <ky> etc. Historically, however, they were not affricates.  The reason these sounds are SPELLED <ky> is because at the time the script was invented, they were attempting to write the pronunciation [k] followed by [j].  And for all I [Zev Handel ] know there may still be Burmese dialects where these are not affricates."

UKT: What Zev Handel has stated above "If the graphic sequence <ky> is PRONOUNCED [tS], then it is an affricate. If it is PRONOUNCED [kj], then it is not." Since I, U Kyaw Tun, a Myanmar born Burmese speaker, unequivocally and emphatically state that <ky> in my name is not pronounced like [tS] or /ʧ/. And, I stick to my statement that Burmese-Myanmar does not have affricates of the type /ʧ/.

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continuant

A continuant is a sound produced with an incomplete closure of the vocal tract. All vowels and fricatives are continuant. The antonym of 'continuant' is 'stop'. -- www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAContinuant.htm / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuant

UKT: The above statement gives me a reason why {tha.} (the equivalent of <th> (/θ, ð/), in spite of being placed in row 7, together with {ya} {ra.} {wa.} is not a medial-former. The only reason I can think of is, the ancient phoneticians of the East had lumped {tha.} with {ya. ra. wa.} because it is an {a.wag} - an unclassifiable.

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[c] - sound in French
Prononciation française - la lettre C

From: http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-pronunciation-c.htm

The letter [c] in French is a lot like the [c] in English. It can be pronounced in one of two ways:

1. Soft pronunciation (see Vowels for explanation) - In front of an E, I, or Y the C is pronounced like an S. Listen
2. Hard pronunciation (see Vowels for explanation) - In front of an A, O, U, or a consonant, the C is prounced like a K. Listen
3. When a C is in front of a hard vowel but has to be pronounced as a soft C, the accent cedille - ç - is added to make it soft. Thus, ç is never found in front of an E or I, because those are soft vowels.
(UKT: I have left the online links in the above intact for future use.)

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epenthesis

In phonetics, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/, Greek epi "on" + en "in" + thesis "putting") is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence (if the sound added is a consonant) and anaptyxis (if the sound added is a vowel). -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis download 070904 /
http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Epenthesis 

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fricatives UNIL

Fricative consonants result from a narrowing of the speech canal that does not achieve the full closure characteristic of the occlusives (plosives/ stops). The shape and position of the lips and/or tongue determine the type of fricative produced.

UNIL distinguishes between so-called true fricatives and the related class of spirants.

During the production of a fricative, the air-stream can be directed in several ways:

• the tongue channels the air through the center of the mouth in the case of the dorsal fricatives, described below under true fricatives. (Fig.3.13.a.)

•  the tongue channels the air down the side(s) of the mouth in the case of the lateral fricatives. Fig.3.13.b.) (UKT: Fig.3.13.b. is also given as Fig. 3.25 : Position of the tongue in lateral fricatives and spirants )

• the shape and position of the tongue is not important in the case of the labial and dental fricatives (which makes sense because the POA is not, strictly speaking, in the oral cavity at all); these are listed among the true fricatives and the spirants below; their special status is noted in each case.

There are 20 true fricatives. UNIL describes the dorsal fricatives and the fricatives where the dorsal/lateral opposition is unimportant.

There are 5 spirants. (Not sibilants). They involve the same restriction of the speech canal as fricatives, but the speech organs are substantially less tense during the articulation of a spirant. Rather than friction, a resonant sound is produced at the place of articulation.

UKT: The contrast between <sibilant> and <spirant> is perhaps best exemplified by {sa.} and {tha.} . Say /s, θ, f/ one after the other, and you will notice that the POA moves from inside to outside. In the IPA table, they are fricatives, and are alveolar, dental, and labio-dental.

Basically, friction and fricatives develop from tense articulations. When the articulation is lax, resonance, and thus a spirant, occurs. Also realize that many spirants can be thought of as the lax counterparts of stop consonants.

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glides as non-syllabic vowels

The usual assumption is that all vowels are syllabic unless otherwise marked. The off-glides of diphthongs should be marked as non-syllabic, either using a consonant symbol or a non-syllabic diacritic. There can even be meaning contrasts in some dialects between syllabic and non-syllabic:

<naive>  [na.iv]     |   <knife>  [nai̯f] 
<employ>  [əm.ˈplɔi̯]     |   <employee>   [əm.ˈplɔ.i]

UKT: Examples <naive> and <knife> given by Univ. of Manitoba are not appropriate, because of the 'silent e' at word-end.

The following is from Wikipedia download 070813 with a note saying "this article does not cite any references or sources".

A non-syllabic vowel is a vowel-like sound that is not the nucleus of a syllable or mora (i.e. it doesn't make up the most prominent part of the syllable). In languages such as Japanese and many Polynesian languages, every vocalic segment constitutes a separate syllable or mora. That is, there are no diphthongs. [dubious – discuss] -- Wikipedia

However, languages such as English have large numbers of diphthongs. A convenient way to indicate that a vowel sound is a non-syllabic part of a diphthong is to write these as approximants, such as <eye> /aj/ or <cow> /kaw/. However, phoneticians often object that the final segments of these diphthongs do not have the constriction of the consonants / j / or /w/ as in <yes> /jɛs/ or <wall> /wɔɫ/, but rather are purely vocalic, and therefore the symbols <j> and <w> are inappropriate. In addition, there are languages where a sequence like [ao] is a diphthong, but contrasts with a diphthong [au]; the symbol <w> obviously cannot be used for both. In such cases the IPA non-syllabic diacritic [  ̯] can be used; this is dubbed an arch. Beside enabling contrasts like [ao̯] vs [au̯], this allows a more precise transcription of standard diphthongs. For instance, the diphthong in English bay may be transcribed with a near-high vowel as [beɪ̯] rather than [bej].

The "w-like" pronunciation of the letter "ł" in standard Polish can be transcribed as /ʊ̯/ (although /w/ is more common).

UKT: The sentence immediately above reminds me of the inability of English speakers to pronounce the Burmese-Myanmar {lhwa.} for <saw> (used for cutting wood) and {lha.} for <beautiful>. The IPA symbol that Daw Than Than and I could associate with {lha.} is [ɬ] (U026C) mentioned above. Unfortunately neither of us could speak Polish.

Note that in practice many diacritics, including the arch, are often left out in broad transcription, so that bay is frequently transcribed [beɪ] (or even [beː] or [be]). It is necessary to know the phonology of the language in order to understand what is meant by such transcriptions.

Non-rhotic varieties of English compensate for the lack of r-coloring in high vowels by epenthising a non-syllabic schwa immediately after the core vowel. Yielding [biə] for [biɹ], beer.

UKT: The transcription of <beer> given as above should be compared with the transcriptions given by MEDict for the following two Burmese-Myanmar words:

• {maar nat} /[man na']/ - n. Mara : the arch angle of evil. -- MEDict359
   [UKT: The word "evil" means one who is always opposed to "liberation" preached by the Buddha.].
• {mring: mor} /[mjin: mou]/ - n. 1. cosmology Mount Meru. -- MEDict372

Spanish and Italian both have a non-syllabic [o] as in bacalao and ciao, respectively (or invertedly, almohada and Edoardo respectively). In both these languages the [ao] diphthong is phonetically distinct from the [au] diphthong, i.e. the difference is not merely orthographic. Therefore the diphthong in the Italian Pao.lo cannot be said to be identical to that in the Portuguese Pau.lo.

Dialects of Caribbean Spanish that drop an intervocalic /d/ will often put the [ao] diphthong into use, as in: pa.sa.do →pa.sao. Spanish will also employ a non-syllabic [e] in words such as, pe.lear or de.sear.

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liquid consonants or liquids

UKT: The following is almost entirely from Wikipedia, download 070817.

Liquid consonants, or liquids, are approximant consonants that are not classified as semivowels (glides) because they do not correspond phonetically to specific vowels (in the way that, for example, the initial [ j ] in English yes corresponds to [ i ]).

The class of liquids can be divided into lateral liquids and rhotics. Obstruent laterals, which are mainly found in indigenous languages of North America and include such sounds as the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative ([ɬ]), the voiced alveolar lateral fricative ([ɮ], and the affricates [tɬ], [tɬʼ], and [dɮ], are sometimes thought of as liquids but do not have their high sonority. Nor can obstruent laterals be used in the same way as sonorant laterals in the languages where they occur.

Typical liquids in English are the sounds /l/ and /ɹ/ (UKT: {la.} and {ra.}). In most other European languages the letter r represents an alveolar trill, which is its value in the IPA. In French, German and Danish, the letter r represents a uvular trill pronounced far back in the throat ([ʁ])- this may also be a uvular approximant.

Some European languages, such as Italian and Serbo-Croatian, have more than two liquid phonemes. These languages typically have the set /l/ /ʎ/ /r/, though some (like Russian) have /lʲ/, /ɫ/, /r/ (Russian also has /rʲ/}}).

Elsewhere in the world, two liquids of the types mentioned above remains the most common attribute of a language's consonant inventory, except in North America and Australia. In North America, a majority of languages do not have rhotics at all and there is a wide variety of lateral sounds - though most are obstruent laterals rather than liquids. Most indigenous Australian languages are very rich in liquids, with some having as many as seven distinct liquids. These typically include dental, alveolar, retroflex and palatal laterals, and as many as three rhotics. This richness in liquid consonants in a sense compensates for the small vowel inventories and lack of fricatives of Aboriginal languages.

Some African languages also contrast two rhotics, usually a trill and a flap.

On the other side, there are many indigenous languages with no liquids in the Amazon Basin and eastern North America, and also a few in Asia and Africa. Polynesian languages typically have only one liquid, which may be either a lateral or a rhotic.

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mora

Mora (plural moras or morae) is a unit of sound used in phonology that determines syllable weight (which in turn determines stress or timing) in some languages. Like many technical linguistics terms, the exact definition of mora is debated. The term comes from the Latin word for "linger, delay", which was also used to translate the Greek word chronos (time) in its metrical sense.

UKT: There is a term in Pali-Myanmar, {mat~ta}, which in Sanskrit-Myanmar is, {ma-tra}. Since it is said that {mat~ta} gives the time of "pronouncing" the sound segments, we should be comparing {mat~ta} and mora. At present, I am unable to do so because of my very limited knowledge of Pali and Sanskrit. See Pali-Myan-Gramm p.003, for information on {mat~ta}/{ma-tra}.

A syllable containing one mora is said to be monomoraic; one with two moras is called bimoraic.

In general, moras are formed as follows:

1. A syllable onset (the first consonant(s) of the syllable) does not represent any mora.

2. The syllable nucleus represents one mora in the case of a short vowel, and two moras in the case of a long vowel or diphthong. Consonants serving as syllable nuclei also represent one mora if short and two if long. (Slovak is an example of a language that has both long and short consonantal nuclei.)

3. In some languages (for example, Japanese), the coda represents one mora, and in others (for example, Irish) it does not. In English, it is clear that the codas of stressed syllables represent a mora (thus, the word cat is bimoraic), but it is not clear whether the codas of unstressed syllables do (the second syllable of the word rabbit might be monomoraic).

4. In some languages, a syllable with a long vowel or diphthong in the nucleus and one or more consonants in the coda is said to be trimoraic (see pluti).

In general, monomoraic syllables are said to be light syllables, bimoraic syllables are said to be heavy syllables, and trimoraic syllables (in languages that have them) are said to be superheavy syllables. Most linguists believe that no language uses syllables containing four or more moras.

Japanese is a language famous for its moraic qualities. Most dialects including the standard use moras (in Japanese, onji) as the basis of the sound system rather than syllables. For example, haiku in modern Japanese do not follow the pattern 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables, as commonly believed, but rather the pattern 5 moras/7 moras/5 moras. As one example, the Japanese syllable-final n is moraic, as is the first part of a geminate consonant. For example, the word Nippon ('Japan' in Japanese) has four moras (NI-P-PO-N)

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plosives and nasals

A stop cuts off airflow through the mouth. Airflow through the nose does not matter -- you can have both oral and nasal stops. Oral stops are often called plosives -- the term used in the IPA chart. Nasal stops are usually just called nasals.

A notable aspect of the consonant-akshara tables including the Burmese-Myanmar, is the division of the table into 2 distinct parts: the {wag} consonants or the clearly defined, and the {a.wag} consonants or the un-definables. In ISCII Devanagari chart, the terms are: varg and non-varg. See Table of Devanagari Consonants in prop-con.htm. Whenever possible, I intend to give the equivalent Devanagari in [...].

Plosives and nasals are the {wag} consonants, and they can be clearly divided into 3 distinct groups - the voiceless in column 1 {ka.  sa.  Ta.  ta.  pa.} / [ka  ca  ṭa  ta  pa] , the voiced in column 3 {ga. za. ða. da. ba.} / [ga  ja  ḍa  da  ba], and the nasals in column 5 {nga. Ña Na. na. ma.} / [ṅa  ña  ṇa  na  ma]. If you go down any column you will notice that the POA moves from the interior of the mouth towards the exterior.

If you go down any column you will notice that the POA moves from the interior of the mouth towards the exterior. This clearly shows that the ancient phoneticians and linguists must have studied the production of human voice in detail unimaginable by us moderns who have established the International Phonetic Association, and invented the phonetic alphabet (IPA), just under two centuries ago. Who could be the ancient scientists? According to one theory, they could be hermits (rishis) residing along the banks of the Saraswati river {Thu.rath~tha.ti mris}  mentioned prominently in the Rig Vedas.

"Rig Veda was composed by Rishis living on the banks of the Saraswati, thus the Rig Veda is contemporaneous (or earlier) than the Harappan culture. Some people even venture to equate Vedic Aryans to the Harappans. Whether or not we believe in this equation, the fact that the majority of Harappan sites are along the Saraswati makes for a strong case that it be called the Saraswati-Sindhu civilization (rather than the Indus Civilization)" -- http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit02192001/musings.asp

Stretching my imaginations further, I wonder whether the ancient hermits, did compare the flow of water along the river to that of air flowing from the lungs towards the lips and outside. They would have noticed how the flow of water can be smooth (laminar flow) producing almost no sound (comparable to voiceless consonants), turbulent (comparable to voiced consonants), and across the obstacles (comparable to obstruction of air flow by the tongue in various positions). They would have noticed how the clear waters of the river had given life to them and everything living around them. They would have noticed that the flow of air from the human lungs had given them (humans) a voice, and a language which had distinguished them from the animals. And, certainly they would have worshipped the river and their own voice producing mechanism, and that to me was how Saraswati became a goddess of learning not only to the Hindus but to the Buddhists as well. No wonder, the vowel is known as {tha.ra.} ("sara" in Sanskrit) meaning the "flow".

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Prince Llywelyn and his faithful dog

This ballad relates the story of Gelert, the dog of Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. According to the tale, Llywelyn embarked on a hunting trip and left his infant son in the charge of his faithful dog Gelert. On his return, the Prince was greeted by Gelert, who noticed the dog's muzzle was soaked in blood, and his son was nowhere to be seen. Llywelyn attacked the dog, and it fell to the ground gravely injured. However, within minutes he heard a cry and discovered his son, safe in his cradle. Beside the cradle lay the body of a giant wolf covered with wounds, the result of a fight to the death with hound Gelert. Llywelyn strode back to his faithful dog and watched it die from his actions. The village of Beddgelert [lit. Gelert's grave] in Snowdonia is reputed to be the final resting place of the hound. Source: http://www.snowdonia.org/ in http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/item1/25268
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pronouncing [l] in English

UKT: Refer to Laterality in one of the sections above.

English has only one lateral consonant [ l ], and they have a hard time pronouncing the Welsh names. And we can imagine the confusion they must have been in when they came across the Burmese-Myanmar {la.} and its medials {lha.}, {lwa.} and {lhwa.}, and {lya.} and {lhya.}. I don't think the problem of representing the Burmese-Myanmar laterals had been solved even to this day. Let's see what DJPD16 has to say about the laterals.

Lateral
DJPD16 p308. A lateral consonant consonant is one where there is obstruction to the passage of air in the centre (mid-line) of the air-passage and the air flows to the side of the obstruction.
   Examples for English: In English the /l/ phoneme is lateral both in its "clear" and its "dark" allophones (see CLEAR L and DARK L); the blade of the tongue is in contact with the alveolar ridge as for /t d n/ but the sides of the tongue are lowered to allow the passage of air, e.g.: <lip> /lɪp/ ; <pill> /pɪl/ (UKT: note in <lip> is comparable to {la.} and in <pill> to "killed {la.}.)
   When an alveolar plosive precedes a lateral consonant in English it is usual for it to have a 'lateral release'. This means that to go from /t/ or /d/ to /l/ we simply lower the sides of the tongue to release the compressed air, rather than lowering and then raising the tongue blade. A syllabic /l/ is the usual result of this in word final position (see SYLLABIC CONSONANT), e.g.: <bottle> /ˈbɒt.l̩/ ; <puddle> /ˈpʌd.l̩/
   Most laterals are produced with the air passage to both sides of the obstruction (they are 'bilateral'}, but sometimes we find air passing to one side only ('unilateral').
   In other languages: Other lateral consonants are found in other languages; the Welsh <ll> sound is a voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ] (U026C) (UKT: We have identified {lha.} to be [ɬ].) and Xhosa and Zulu have a voiced lateral fricative [ɮ] (U026E). Several South African languages have lateral clicks (where the plosive occlusion is released laterally) and at least one language (of Papua New Guinea) has a contrast between alveolar and lateral.

Clear L
DJPD16 p101. A type of LATERAL sound in which the air escapes past the sides of the tongue, found normally only before vowels. Usually contrasted with DARK L.
   Examples for English: In the case of an alveolar lateral (e.g. English /l/ the blade of the tongue (the part further back than the tip) is in contact with the alveolar ridge, but the rest of the tongue is free to take up different shapes. One possibility is for the front of the tongue (the part behind the blade) to be raised in the same shape as that for a close front vowel [i]. This gives the /l/ [i]-like sound and the result is a "clear l". It is found notably in BBC English only before vowels, but in some other accents, notably Irish and Welsh ones, it is found in all positions. However, the variant most often found in all positions is "DARK L". e.g. <pill> /pɪl/ [pʰɪɫ]
(UKT: The remark by DJPD16 "found normally only before vowels" means that {la.} and its medials are "clear L".)

Dark L
p136. A type of LATERAL sound, recognizably different from CLEAR L.
   Examples for English: If, when pronouncing the sound /l/, the back of the tongue is raised as for an [u] vowel, the quality is [u]-like and 'dark'; this effect is even more noticeable if the lips are rounded at the same time. This sound is typically found when /l/ occurs before a consonant or before a pause, e.g.: <help> /help/ [heɫp] ; <hill> /hɪl/ [hrɫ]

UKT: The remark by DJPD16 "found when /l/ occurs before a consonant or before a pause" means that the "killed" {la.} or {la.that} is "dark L".

   In several accents of English, particularly those close to London, the dark L has given way to a [w] sound, so that <help> and <hill> might be transcribed /hewp/ and /hɪw/; this process is known as 'L vocalization'.
   In other languages: The process of L vocalization took place in Polish some time ago, and the sound represented in Polish writing with the letter /ɫ/ is almost always pronounced as /w/, though foreigners usually try to pronounce it as / l /.

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secondary articulations Wikipedia

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_articulation download 070830

Secondary articulation refers to co-articulated consonants where the two articulations are not of the same manner. The approximant-like secondary articulation is weaker than the primary, and colors it rather than obscuring it. For example, the voiceless labialized velar plosive [kʷ] {kwa.} has only a single stop articulation, velar [k], with a simultaneous [w]-like rounding of the lips, and is usually heard as a kind of [k]. This is in contrast to the doubly articulated labial-velar consonant [k͡p], which has two equal stop articulations at the velum and lips.

There are a number of secondary articulations. The most frequently encountered are labialization (such as [kʷ]), palatalization (such as the Russian "soft" consonant [tʲ]), velarization (such as the English "dark" L [lˠ]), and pharyngealization (such as the Arabic "emphatic" consonant [tˤ]).

Although the symbol for secondary articulation is a superscript written after the primary consonant, this is misleading, as they are pronounced simultaneously. Since secondary articulation has a strong effect on surrounding vowels, it will often seem that it precedes the consonant, or both precedes and follows it. For this reason, the IPA symbols for labialization and palatalization were for a time placed directly under the consonant (as [k̫] and [ƫ]), and there is still an alternate symbol for velarization or pharyngealizaton that is superposed across the consonant (as in [ɫ] for dark L).

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