velar consonant
- noun
- /ˈviːlər ˈkɑnsənənt/
- Specialized
:
consonante velar
- The English sound k in 'cat' is a classic example of a velar consonant.
Examples
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Children often find it difficult to pronounce velar consonants correctly when they first learn to speak.
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In some languages, the range of velar consonant sounds is much broader than in English.
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Can you identify a velar consonant in this word?
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What examples of velar consonants can you think of?
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Children often find it difficult to pronounce velar consonants correctly when they first learn to speak.
-
The English sound k in 'cat' is a classic example of a velar consonant.
-
In some languages, the range of velar consonant sounds is much broader than in English.
Synonyms
A consonant made with the back of the tongue against the soft part of the roof of the mouth
How Back
- Specialized
2
8.6
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
8.7
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
If a learner knows 'velar' (relating to the velum/back of the tongue) and 'consonant' (a speech sound produced by obstructing airflow), the combined adjective+noun meaning — a consonant produced at the velum — is directly deducible. This is a straightforward compositional pattern found cross-linguistically (e.g. Spanish 'consonante velar'), so a learner familiar with both constituents would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Velar consonant comes from the Latin word 'velum', which means 'curtain'. The image is that the back of your tongue touches the soft part at the back of your mouth like a small 'curtain', so velar shows the place and consonant tells you it is a speech sound.