Velarizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To produce a consonant sound by raising or retracting the back of the tongue toward the soft palate during articulation
2. The action of pronouncing speech sounds with a secondary articulation involving the back of the tongue approaching the velum
3. The phonetic process of modifying a sound so that it includes a velar articulation component, typically affecting consonants in speech production

Etymology: "Velarizes" is the third-person singular form of "velarize", so it simply describes a sound being articulated with the back of the tongue raised toward the soft palate. The root, "velar", is an adjective built on the Latin "velum", meaning "veil" or "sail" (a soft palate is the velum). Phoneticians use "velar" for consonants such as the "k" and "g" sounds made at that point of the mouth. "Velarize" is that adjective with the English verb-forming suffix "-ize", which turns a descriptive term into a verb meaning "to make something velar." The suffix comes from Greek "-izein" by way of Latin and French, and it has been attached to scientific adjectives for centuries, so "velarize" follows the same pattern as words like "palatalize" and "nasalize." It is a technical coinage from phonetics, a plain compound of a Latin-derived adjective and a Greek-derived suffix, rather than a word with a dramatic history.

Synonyms: soften, palatalize, pronounce velarly, velarize sound, palatalize sound

Antonyms: develarize, harden, depalatalize