Liquid consonant

{{Short description|Class of speech sounds}} {{multiple issues| {{More citations needed|date=April 2024}} {{Cleanup lang|date=December 2024}} }} {{IPA notice}} In linguistics, a '''liquid consonant''' or simply '''liquid''' is any of a class of consonants that consists of rhotics and laterals,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Ballard |first=Elaine |last2=Starks |first2=Donn |date=2005-10-10 |title=Liquids: Laterals and Rhotics or Much More? |url=https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/102 |language=en |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250410151451/https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/102 |archive-date=2025-04-10|journal=Proceedings of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society}}</ref> which are also described as "R-like sounds" and "L-like sounds". Liquids have also been defined as "non-nasal sonorant consonants"<ref name=":0" /> (although this definition often includes semivowels as well).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781444335262 |title=The Blackwell Companion to Phonology |date=2011-03-11 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4051-8423-6 |editor-last=Oostendorp |editor-first=Marc |edition=1 |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0008 |editor-last2=Ewen |editor-first2=Colin J. |editor-last3=Hume |editor-first3=Elizabeth |editor-last4=Rice |editor-first4=Keren}}</ref> The word ''liquid'' seems to be a calque of the Ancient Greek word {{lang|grc|ὑγρός}} ({{Transliteration|grc|hygrós}} {{gloss|moist}}), initially used by grammarian Dionysius Thrax to describe Greek sonorants.<ref name=":9" />

Liquid consonants are notable for several distinctive properties. They are more prone to be part of consonant clusters and of the syllable nucleus. Acoustically, their third formants are generally non-predictable based on the first two formants. Another important feature is their complex articulation, which makes them a difficult consonant class to study with precision and the last consonants to be produced by children during their phonological development. They are also more likely to undergo certain types of phonological changes such as assimilation, dissimilation and metathesis.

Most languages have at least one liquid in their phonemic inventory. English has two, {{IPAslink|l}} and {{IPA|/r/}}.

==History and etymology== The grammarian Dionysius Thrax used the Ancient Greek word {{lang|grc|ὑγρός}} ({{Transliteration|grc|hygrós}}, <abbr>transl.</abbr> moist) to describe the sonorant consonants ({{IPA|[l, r, m, n]}}) of classical Greek. It is assumed that the term referred to their changing or inconsistent (or "fluid") effect on meter in classical Greek verse when they occur as the second member of a consonant cluster.<ref name=":9" /> This word was calqued into Latin as ''liquidus'' (possibly because of a mistranslation) and this calque has been retained in the Western European phonetic tradition.

== Sonority and syllable structure == In the sonority hierarchy, liquids are considered the most sonorous sounds after vowels and glides,<ref>{{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Matthew K. |title=Introduction |date=2016-04-01 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0001 |work=Phonological Typology |pages=1–16 |access-date=2023-12-28 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0001|isbn=978-0-19-966900-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> with laterals considered to be less sonorous than rhotics.<ref name=":82">{{Cite book |last=Wiese |first=Richard |title=The Blackwell Companion to Phonology |chapter=The Representation of Rhotics |date=2011-04-28 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0030 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0030|isbn=978-1-4051-8423-6 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This explains why they are more likely to be part of consonant clusters than other consonants (excluding glides), and to follow obstruents in initial consonant clusters and precede them in final consonant clusters.<ref name=":5">{{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Matthew K. |title=Syllables |date=2016-04-01 |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0004 |work=Phonological Typology |pages=83–122 |access-date=2023-12-28 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0004|isbn=978-0-19-966900-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Liquids also hold this position in the hierarchy of syllable peaks,<ref name=":5" /> which means that liquids are theoretically more likely to be syllabic (or, in other words, be part of a syllable nucleus) than any other consonants,<ref>{{Citation |last=Anderson |first=Catherine |title=3.5 Syllabic Consonants |date=2018-03-15 |url=https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/essentialsoflinguistics/chapter/3-4-syllabic-consonants/ |work=Essentials of Linguistics |access-date=2021-02-02 |publisher=McMaster University |language=en}}</ref> although some studies show that syllabic nasals are overall more favoured.<ref name=":5" /> Thus Czech, Slovak and other Slavic languages allow their liquid consonants {{IPA|/l/}} and {{IPA|/r/}} to be the center of their syllables<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |date=2010-05-01 |title=Syllabic Consonants in Slavic and Celtic Languages: The Mechanism of Element Extension |url=https://www.societas-celto-slavica.org/series/04/07 |language=en-GB |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=53–66 |doi=10.54586/WWJF8701|last=Bloch-Rozmej|first=Anna|journal=Studia Celto-Slavica}}</ref> – as witnessed by the classic tonguetwister {{Langx|cs|st'''r'''č p'''r'''st sk'''r'''z k'''r'''k|label=none}} "push (your) finger through (your) throat." Additionally, Slovak also has long versions of these syllabic consonants,<ref name=":1" /> ŕ and ĺ, e.g.: ''kĺb'' [kɫ̩ːp] 'joint', ''vŕba'' [ˈvr̩ːba] 'willow', ''škvŕn'' [ʃkvr̩ːn] '(of) spots'. This is also true for General American English (see the words ''barr'''el''''' and ''anch'''or''''') and other English accents.

Sequences of an obstruent and a liquid consonant are often ambiguous as far as syllabification is concerned. In these cases, whether the two consonants are part of the same syllable or not heavily depends on the individual language, and closely related languages can behave differently (such as Icelandic and Faroese).<ref name=":9">{{Cite journal |last1=Mailhammer |first1=Robert |last2=Restle |first2=David |last3=Vennemann |first3=Theo |editor-first1=Patrick |editor-first2=Joseph |editor-last1=Honeybone |editor-last2=Salmons |date=2015-04-07 |title=Preference Laws in Phonological Change |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.032 |journal=Oxford Handbooks Online |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.032|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In Latin and Ancient Greek, obstruent + liquid consonant clusters (known as ''muta cum liquida'')<ref name=":82" /> supposedly were ambiguous in this sense, and as such were often used to manipulate meter.<ref name=":9" />

== Acoustic and articulatory phonetics == Acoustically, liquids seem to have a third formant of unexpected value when compared to the first and second formants. This contrasts with non-liquid approximants, whose third formant value is expected based on the first two formants.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Hayes |first=Bruce |title=Introductory Phonology |publisher=Blackwell |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4443-6013-4 |edition=1st |pages=19 |language=en}}</ref>

In articulatory phonetics, liquids are described as ''controlled gestures,''<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last1=Stoel-Gammon |first1=Carol |last2=Ferguson |first2=Charles Albert |last3=Menn |first3=Lise |date=1992 |title=The biology of phonological development |journal=Phonological Development |pages=65–90}}</ref> which are slower and require more precise tongue movement during the "homing phase", when the tongue adjusts towards the place of articulation of the consonant.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last1=MacKenzie |first1=C. L. |last2=Marteniuk |first2=R. G. |last3=Dugas |first3=C. |last4=Liske |first4=D. |last5=Eickmeier |first5=B. |date=November 1987 |title=Three-Dimensional Movement Trajectories in Fitts' Task: Implications for Control |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14640748708401806 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=629–647 |doi=10.1080/14640748708401806 |issn=0272-4987 |s2cid=143471338|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Due to the fact that babies prefer ''ballistic gestures'', which rely on the propelling motion of the jaw, liquids usually occur later in a child's phonological development,<ref name=":42">{{Citation |last1=Rose |first1=Yvan |title=Developmental Phonetics of Speech Production |date=2021-11-30 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108644198.024 |work=The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics |pages=578–602 |access-date=2023-12-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108644198.024 |isbn=978-1-108-64419-8 |s2cid=244070672 |last2=McAllister |first2=Tara |last3=Inkelas |first3=Sharon|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Yeni-Komshian |first1=Grace H. |title=Child phonology |last2=Kavanagh |first2=James F. |last3=Ferguson |first3=Charles Albert |date=1980 |publisher=Academic Press |others=National Institute of Child Health and Human Development U.S. |isbn=978-0-12-770601-6 |series=Perspectives in neurolinguistics, neuropsychology, and psycholinguistics |location=New York}}</ref> and they are more likely to be deleted in consonant clusters before the age of three.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Rose |first1=Yvan |title=Developmental Phonetics of Speech Production |date=2021 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-phonetics/developmental-phonetics-of-speech-production/61743731BEBED5BEE2BF235CFA403054 |work=The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics |pages=578–602 |editor-last=Setter |editor-first=Jane |access-date=2023-12-29 |series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49573-8 |last2=McAllister |first2=Tara |last3=Inkelas |first3=Sharon |editor2-last=Knight |editor2-first=Rachael-Anne}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grunwell |first=Pamela |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NwlsEAZ9_YC |title=Clinical Phonology |date=1982 |publisher=Aspen Systems Corporation |isbn=978-0-89443-392-4 |language=en}}</ref> Liquids have also been described as consonants involving "complex lingual geometries."<ref name=":62">{{Citation |last1=Drager |first1=Katie |title=Sociophonetics |date=2021 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-phonetics/sociophonetics/4E3C7CC84C775CB67B6076A0FEDFEAB9 |work=The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics |pages=551–577 |editor-last=Setter |editor-first=Jane |access-date=2023-12-29 |series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49573-8 |last2=Kettig |first2=Thomas |editor2-last=Knight |editor2-first=Rachael-Anne}}</ref>

Due to liquids being difficult to analyse on a purely auditory basis, the use of ultrasound paired with audio recordings is increasing in order to better determine the full range of articulatory and acoustic characteristics of liquids.<ref name=":62" />

== Sound changes == Liquids seem to be more or less subjected to certain sound changes than other consonants.{{clarify|date=March 2026|"more or less" just confuses here. Are they more subjected or less subjected?}} On an auditory level, liquid consonants resemble each other, which is likely the reason they undergo or trigger assimilation, dissimilation and metathesis.<ref name=":102">{{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Matthew K. |title=Phoneme inventories |date=2016-04-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0003 |work=Phonological Typology |pages=43–82 |access-date=2023-12-30 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-966900-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Metathesis=== Cross-linguistically, liquids tend to be more prone to metathesis than other consonants,<ref name=":72">{{Cite journal |last=Cser |first=András |editor-first1=Patrick |editor-first2=Joseph |editor-last1=Honeybone |editor-last2=Salmons |date=2014-11-03 |title=Basic Types of Phonological Change |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.036 |journal=Oxford Handbooks Online |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.036|url-access=subscription }}</ref> especially long-distance metathesis.<ref name=":112">{{Citation |last=Gordon |first=Matthew K. |title=Segmental processes |date=2016-04-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0005 |work=Phonological Typology |pages=123–174 |access-date=2023-12-30 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669004.003.0005 |isbn=978-0-19-966900-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In Spanish, a frequent example is the behaviour of /r/ and /l/:

* Lat. ''c'''r'''ocodīlus'' > Span. ''cocod'''r'''ilo'' “crocodile” * Lat. ''mī'''r'''ācu'''l'''um'' > Span. ''mi'''l'''ag'''r'''o'' “miracle” * Lat. ''pe'''r'''īcu'''l'''um'' > Span. ''pe'''l'''ig'''r'''o'' “danger” * Lat. ''pa'''r'''abo'''l'''a'' > Span. ''pa'''l'''ab'''r'''a'' “speech”

In English, ''comfortable'' is frequently pronounced /ˈkʌmf.tɚ.bəl/ in rhotic varieties, even though its stem, ''comfort'', is pronounced /ˈkʌm.fɚt/, with the rhotic /ɹ/ in its original position.

=== Assimilation === Liquid consonants can also undergo assimilation: compare Italian ''pa'''rl'''are'' "to speak" with Sicilian ''pa'''rr'''ari''. This phenomenon, which is not so common worldwide with respect to liquids, is attested in Finnish. For example, the root ''tul-'' "to come" combined with the past participle suffix -''nut'', yields the surface form ''tu'''ll'''ut''. This is one of the reasons long liquids are common in Finnish.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bybee |first=Joan |editor-first1=Patrick |editor-first2=Joseph |editor-last1=Honeybone |editor-last2=Salmons |date=2015-04-07 |title=Articulatory Processing and Frequency of Use in Sound Change |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.016 |journal=Oxford Handbooks Online |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.016|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

A specific form of liquid assimilation, liquid harmony, is present is some languages. In Sundanese, some morphemes have two different realisations depending on what liquid is present in the root.<ref name=":112" />

===Dissimilation=== Liquids are also prone to dissimilation when they occur in sequence.<ref name=":72" /> For example, Old Italian ''co'''l'''onne'''ll'''o'' "colonel" is borrowed into Middle French as ''co'''r'''onne'''l''''', which is in turned loaned into English as ''colonel'', with an orthography inspired by Italian but with the /ˈkɚnəl/ or /ˈkɜːnel/ pronunciation with the rhotic ''r'', which is absent in writing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Colonel - Etymology, Origin & Meaning |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/colonel |access-date=2026-03-01 |website=etymonline |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Epenthesis === Epenthesis, or the addition of sounds, is common in environments where liquids are present, especially consonant clusters. The epenthetic sound can be a vowel or a consonant.<ref name=":72" /> For example, the genitive of the Ancient Greek noun ἀνήρ ''anḗr'' "man" is ἀν'''δ'''ρός ''an'''d'''rós'', with the insertion of a [d] sound between a nasal consonant and the liquid [r].<ref name=":72" /> Another example is the Irish word ''seilg'' "hunt, chase", usually pronounced with an epenthetic schwa {{IPA|[ə]}} after the liquid {{IPA|[lʲ]}}: {{IPA|[ˈʃɛlʲəg]|lang=ga}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McCullough |first=Kerry |date=2017 |title=The value of Irish schwa: An acoustic analysis of epenthetic vowels |url=https://journals.ku.edu/kwpl/article/view/17198 |journal=Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics |language=en |volume=38 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.17161/1808.26632 |issn=2378-7600|hdl=1808/26632 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

=== Other types of phonological change === Liquids can often be the result of lenition, the "weakening" of consonants (for example, Sanskrit {{lang|sa|पीडा}} ({{Transliteration|sa|pīḍā}}, {{gloss|pain}}) later became Pali ''pī'''ḷ'''ā'').<ref name=":72" /> They are also likely to become vowels or glides, a process known as vocalisation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morén-Duolljá |first=Bruce |title=The Blackwell Companion to Phonology |chapter=Vowel Place |date=2011-04-28 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0019 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1002/9781444335262.wbctp0019|isbn=978-1-4051-8423-6 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> See, for example, the pronunciation of Spanish {{IPA|/ɾ/}} as {{IPA|[j]}} in the Cibao region of the Dominican Republic at the end of a syllable: standard Spanish {{Lang|es|mujer}} {{IPA|/muˈxeɾ/}} is optionally pronounced {{IPA|[muˈxej]}} in Cibaeño Spanish.<ref name=":12" />

==Occurrence and geographical distribution== According to a survey by linguist Ian Maddieson, most languages have one to three liquids (with systems of two liquids being the most common) and they are usually dental or alveolar.<ref name=":102" /> Liquid consonants are also rarely geminated crosslinguistically.<ref name=":102" /> Across the world's languages, having multiple liquids is more common than having multiple rhotics; but if a language has only one liquid, that single liquid is more likely to be a rhotic.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Maddieson |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/patterns-of-sounds/0343A25536C204719D26A39E5460EA77 |title=Patterns of Sounds |date=1984 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-11326-7 |series=Cambridge Studies in Speech Science and Communication |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511753459}}</ref>{{rp|82–83}} Some languages, such as Japanese, Korean or Apinayé, have a single liquid phoneme that has both lateral and rhotic allophones.<ref name=":2" />{{rp|83}}

All languages of Europe have at least one rhotic and one lateral, and therefore, at least two liquids.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-areal-linguistics/30BE7D6CB774250F5B18AD4714E40CE6 |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-05161-4 |editor-last=Hickey |editor-first=Raymond |series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9781107279872}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=130}} The number of liquids in European languages grows in the margins of the continent.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stolz |first=Thomas |title=Von Katastrophen, Zeichen und vom Ursprung der menschlichen Sprache: Würdigung eines vielseitigen Linguisten, Wolfgang Wildgen zur Emeritierung |last2=Urdze |first2=Aina |last3=Otsuka |first3=Hitomi |publisher=Brockmeyer |year=2010 |editor-last=Stroh |editor-first=Cornelia |location=Bochum |page=93–114 |language=de |chapter=Europäische Liquiden: Rhotische und laterale Phoneme – sprachgeographisch betrachtet}}</ref> The most infrequent types of liquids in Europe are to be found in Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the Caucasus.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stolz |first=Thomas |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110672602/html |title=Areal Linguistics within the Phonological Atlas of Europe: Loan Phonemes and their Distribution |last2=Levkovych |first2=Nataliya |date=2021-08-23 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-067260-2 |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783110672602}}</ref>{{Reference page|page=61}}

English has two liquid phonemes, one lateral, {{IPAslink|l}} and one rhotic, {{IPAslink|ɹ}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kirkham |first=Sam |date=April 2017 |title=Ethnicity and phonetic variation in Sheffield English liquids |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/ethnicity-and-phonetic-variation-in-sheffield-english-liquids/FAC3C04EDA3B02D518A740C860AAB71B |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |language=en |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=17–35 |doi=10.1017/S0025100316000268 |issn=0025-1003|doi-access=free }}</ref> Some, such as Greek, Italian and Serbo-Croatian, have more than two liquid phonemes. All three languages have the set {{IPA|/l/, /ʎ/, /r/}}, with two laterals and one rhotic. Similarly, the Iberian languages contrast four liquid phonemes. {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/ʎ/}}, {{IPA|/ɾ/}}, and a fourth phoneme that is an alveolar trill in most Iberian languages except for many varieties of Portuguese, where it is a uvular trill or fricative (also, the majority of Spanish speakers lack {{IPA|/ʎ/}} and use the central {{IPA|/ʝ/}} instead). Some European languages, for example Russian and Irish, contrast a palatalized lateral–rhotic pair with an unpalatalized (or velarized) set (e.g. {{IPA|/lʲ/ /rʲ/ /l/ /r/}} in Russian).

Elsewhere in the world, two liquids of the types mentioned above remains the most common attribute of a language's consonant inventory except in North America and Australia. A majority of indigenous North American languages do not have rhotics at all and there is a wide variety of lateral sounds, though most are obstruent laterals rather than liquids. Most indigenous Australian languages, in contrast, are very rich in liquids, with some having as many as seven distinct liquids. They typically include dental, alveolar, retroflex and palatal laterals, and as many as three rhotics.

On the other side, there are many indigenous languages in the Amazon Basin and eastern North America, as well as a few in Asia and Africa, with no liquids.

Polynesian languages typically have only one liquid, which may be either a lateral or a rhotic. Non-Polynesian Oceanic languages usually have both {{IPA|/l/}} and {{IPA|/r/}}, occasionally more (e.g. Araki has {{IPA|/l/}}, {{IPA|/ɾ/}}, {{IPA|/r/}}) or less (e.g. Mwotlap has only {{IPA|/l/}}). Hiw is unusual in having a prestopped velar lateral {{IPA|/ᶢʟ/}} as its only liquid.<ref>{{citation |last=François |first=Alexandre |title=Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment |url=https://www.academia.edu/848679 |journal=Phonology |volume=27 |issue=3 |pages=393–434 |year=2010a |doi=10.1017/s0952675710000205 |s2cid=62628417}}.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Liquid consonants Category:Phonetics Category:Phonology