Voiced velar lateral fricative

The voiced velar lateral fricative is a very rare speech sound that can be found in Archi, a Northeast Caucasian language of Dagestan, in which it is clearly a fricative, although further forward than velars in most languages, and might better be called prevelar. Archi also has various voiceless fricatives and voiceless and ejective affricates at the same place of articulation.^[1]

It occurs as an intervocalic allophone of /ʟ̝̊/ in Nii and perhaps some related Wahgi languages of New Guinea.

The IPA has no dedicated symbol for this sound, but it can be transcribed as a raised velar lateral approximant, ⟨ʟ̝⟩.

Features

Features of the voiced velar lateral fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.

• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.

• 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 lateral consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue, rather than down the middle.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

References

Note that the source uses the symbol for the voiced alveolar lateral fricative ([ɮ]), but also indicates the sound to be prevelar.