Approximant consonant
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| Manners of articulation |
| Obstruent |
| Click |
| Plosive |
| Ejective |
| Implosive |
| Affricate |
| Fricative |
| Sibilant |
| Sonorant |
| Nasal |
| Flaps/Tap |
| Trill |
| Approximant |
| Liquid |
| Vowel |
| Semivowel |
| Lateral |
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Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. In the articulation of approximants, articulatory organs produce a narrowing of the vocal tract, but leave enough space for air to flow without much audible turbulence. Approximants are therefore more open than fricatives. This class of sounds includes lateral approximants like Template:IPA, as in lip, and approximants like Template:IPA and Template:IPA in yes and well which correspond closely to vowels and semivowels.
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Corresponding vowels
Palatal approximants correspond to front vowels, velar approximants to back vowels, and labialized approximants to rounded vowels. They are typically briefer and closer than the corresponding vowels.
Approximants vs. fricatives
When emphasized, approximants may be slightly fricated (that is, the airstream may become slightly turbulent), which is reminiscent of fricatives. Examples are the y of English yes! (especially when lengthened) and the "weak" allophones of Spanish b, d, g, which are often transcribed as fricatives (often due perhaps to a lack of dedicated approximant symbols). However, such frication is generally slight and intermittant, unlike the strong turbulence of fricative consonants.
This confusion is also common with voiceless approximants, which necessarily have a certain amount of fricative-like noise. For example, the voiceless labialized velar approximant Template:IPA has traditionally been called a fricative. Tibetan has a voiceless lateral approximant, Template:IPA, and Welsh has a voiceless lateral fricative Template:IPA, but the distinction is not always clear from descriptions of these languages.
For places of articulation further back in the mouth, languages do not contrast voiced fricatives and approximants. Therefore the IPA allows the symbols for the voiced fricatives to double for the central approximants, with or without a lowering diacritic.
Occasionally the glottal "fricatives" are called approximants, since [h] typically has no more frication than voiceless approximants, but they are often phonations of the glottis without any accompanying manner or place of articulation.
Central approximants
- bilabial approximant Template:IPA (usually written Template:IPA)
- labiodental approximant Template:IPA
- dental approximant Template:IPA (usually written Template:IPA)
- alveolar approximant Template:IPA (a consonantal Template:IPA)
- retroflex approximant Template:IPA
- palatal approximant Template:IPA (a consonantal Template:IPA)
- velar approximant Template:IPA (a consonantal Template:IPA)
- uvular approximant Template:IPA (usually written Template:IPA)
- pharyngeal approximant Template:IPA (usually written Template:IPA)
- epiglottal approximant Template:IPA (usually written Template:IPA)
Lateral approximants
- voiced alveolar lateral approximant Template:IPA
- voiceless alveolar lateral approximant Template:IPA
- retroflex lateral approximant Template:IPA
- palatal lateral approximant Template:IPA
- velar lateral approximant Template:IPA
Coarticulated approximants with dedicated IPA symbols
- voiced labialized velar approximant Template:IPA (a consonantal Template:IPA)
- voiceless labialized velar approximant Template:IPA
- labialized palatal approximant Template:IPA (a consonantal Template:IPA)
- velarized alveolar lateral approximant Template:IPA
A "central" approximant?
Although many languages have central vowels Template:IPA which lie between back/velar Template:IPA and front/palatal Template:IPA, there are no confirmed reports of corresponding approximants. However, Mapudungun may be a possibility: It has three high vowel sounds, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, written "i", "u", "ü", and three corresponding consonants, written "y", "w", "q". The first two are clearly Template:IPA and Template:IPA. The "q" is often described as a voiced unrounded velar fricative, but some texts note a correspondence between "q" and Template:IPA that is parallel to Template:IPA-Template:IPA and Template:IPA-Template:IPA. An example is liq Template:IPA "white" [1].
See also
Template:Consonantsde:Approximant fr:Consonne spirante ko:접근음 he:עיצורים מקורבים ja:接近音 ro:Consoană sonantă sv:Approximant