velar •
\VEE-ler\ • adjective 1 : formed with the back of the tongue touching or
near the soft palate 2 : of, forming, or relating to a velum and especially the soft palate
Examples: The word
"keg" contains two velar consonants, "k"
and "g."
"Those
throat-clearing sounds you hear in German? That's the voiceless velar
fricative, and it adds a wonderful percussiveness to '99 Luftbalons.' English
speakers don't have it; it's one reason the Anglicized version of Nena's 1984
hit falls flat." — William Weir, Slate, November 8,
2012
Did you know? Velar is
ultimately derived from Latin velum (meaning "curtain" or
"veil"), which was itself adopted into English by way of New Latin as
a word for the soft palate (the fold at the back of the hard palate—palate, by
the way, refers to the roof of the mouth—that partially
separates the mouth
from the pharynx). Velar is used by phonologists to refer to the position of
the tongue in relation to the soft palate when making certain sounds. Other
terms for what phonologists refer to as "places of articulation" are
palatal (tongue against the roof of the mouth), dental (tongue against the
upper teeth), and alveolar (tongue against the inner surface of the gums of the upper front teeth).
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