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Lateral voiceless alveolar fricative

The lateral voiceless alveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages, among them Welsh. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɬ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K.

IPA - Unicode	ɬ
IPA - image
X-SAMPA	K
Kirshenbaum	s<lat>
Sound sample

Features of this consonant:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is alveolar which means it is articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.
• Its phonation type is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a lateral consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the sides of the tongue, rather than the center of the tongue.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.