Velarisation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of pronouncing a consonant with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate, often producing a "dark" sound effect in speech
2. A phonetic articulation involving the tongue's rear elevating near the velum to modify a consonant's quality, commonly called velarization
3. The linguistic phenomenon where a sound is articulated with an additional constriction at the velar area, altering its typical pronunciation and timbre

Etymology: Velarisation is a plain technical formation: it combines "velar," the adjective for the soft palate (the velum) at the back of the mouth, with the suffix "-isation," the British spelling of "-ization," which turns an adjective or noun into a word for the process of making something that way. Velar itself comes from the Latin "velum," meaning "sail" or "curtain," and the palate was named after its resemblance to a hanging covering. The word therefore names the act of pulling the back of the tongue up toward the soft palate while a consonant is pronounced. English "l" in words like "feel" or "milk" is the familiar example: the back of the tongue rises as the tip makes contact, which gives the sound its dark, hollow quality. Phoneticians use the term to describe this secondary layer of articulation, distinguishing it from palatalisation, where the middle of the tongue rises toward the hard palate instead.

Synonyms: velarization