1 min read

Sounds I don't need to know, but want to

I don't have a particular need to recognize or be able to produce these sounds, but I kind of want to anyway.

IPA symbol (per Wikipedia) Sound name
y Close front rounded vowel
ø Close-mid front rounded vowel
œ Open-mid front rounded vowel
ʊ Near-close near-back rounded vowel
ɤ Close-mid back unrounded vowel
ɛ̃ Nasal open-mid front unrounded vowel
ɔ̃ Nasal open-mid back rounded vowel
ɑ̃ Nasal open back unrounded vowel
ɳ Voiced retroflex nasal
ʈ Voiceless retroflex plosive
ɖ Voiced retroflex plosive
q Voiceless uvular plosive
ʈ͡ʂ Voiceless retroflex affricate
t͡ɕ Voiceless alveo-palatal affricate
d͡ʑ Voiced alveo-palatal affricate
ɸ Voiceless bilabial fricative
ʂ Voiceless retroflex fricative
ʐ Voiced retroflex fricative
ɕ Voiceless alveo-palatal fricative
ʑ Voiced alveo-palatal fricative
ç Voiceless palatal fricative
ɣ Voiced velar fricative
ʁ Voiced uvular fricative
ɦ Voiced glottal fricative
x Voiceless velar fricative
ħ Voiceless pharyngeal fricative
ʕ Voiced pharyngeal fricative
ʋ Voiced labiodental approximant
ʝ Voiced palatal approximant
ɰ Voiced velar approximant
ɥ Voiced labial-palatal approximant
ɻ Voiced retroflex approximant
ɽ Voiced retroflex tap
r Voiced dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills
ɫ Voiced alveolar lateral approximant
ʎ* Voiced palatal lateral approximant

Why? Because making new noises sounds like fun.

Most of these (12) are fricatives. Five are approximants, three are affricates, three are plosives, two are lateral approximants, one is a nasal, one is a tap, and one is a trill.

I wonder why so many of these are fricatives.

Oh well.

*[ʎ] is supposedly a possible allophone in million, but eh.