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Co-articulated consonants or complex consonants are consonants produced with two simultaneous places of articulation . They may be divided into two classes: doubly articulated consonants with two primary places of articulation of the same manner (both stop, or both nasal, etc .), and consonants with secondary articulation , that is, a second articulation not of the same manner. ^{[1] : 328}

Doubly articulated consonants [ edit ]

An example of a doubly articulated consonant is the voiceless labial-velar stop [k?p] , which is pronounced simultaneously at the velum (a [k]) and at the lips (a [p]).

In practically all languages of the world that have doubly articulated consonants, these are either clicks or labial-velars .

Consonants with secondary articulation [ edit ]

An example of a consonant with secondary articulation is the voiceless labialized velar stop [k?] has only a single stop articulation, velar [k], with a simultaneous approximant-like rounding of the lips.

There is a large number of common secondary articulations. The most frequently encountered are labialization (such as [k?] ), palatalization (such as the Russian "soft" consonants like [p?] ), velarization (such as the English "dark" el [l?] ), and pharyngealization (such as the Arabic emphatic consonants like [t?] ).

Distinction between the two classes [ edit ]

As might be expected from the approximant-like nature of secondary articulation, it is not always easy to tell whether a co-articulated approximant consonant such as /w/ is doubly or secondarily articulated. In some English dialects ^{[ which? ]} , for example, /w/ is a labialized velar that could be transcribed as [??] .

Similar phones [ edit ]

The glottis controls phonation , and works simultaneously with many consonants. It is not normally considered an articulator, and an ejective such as [k?] , with simultaneous closure of the velum and glottis, is not normally considered to be a co-articulated consonant.

See also [ edit ]

• List of phonetics topics
• Gemination
• Voiceless labial?palatal fricative

References [ edit ]