Topic-069: Velarisation In co-articulation, velarisation is a process whereby a constriction in the vocal tract is added to the primary constriction which gives a consonant its place of articulation. More specifically, velarisation is an example of secondary articulation. In the case of English dark l, the l phoneme is produced with its usual primary constriction in the alveolar region (try speaking this sound. It is like the back of the tongue is raised for an u vowel sound creating a secondary (articulation) constriction. There are more examples, life vs. file (/la ɪf/ /faɪl̴/) clap vs. talc (/klæp/ /tæl̴k/). It is a very common feature of Arabic and is quite important and interesting for acoustic analysis.
