approximante

An approximant, or approximante, is a consonant sound produced by bringing two articulators close together without creating the turbulent airflow that characterizes fricatives. The result is a relatively open constriction through which air flows smoothly, giving approximants a continuous, vowel-like quality. They are typically voiced and are classified as sonorants, along with vowels, nasals, and liquids.

Common approximants in the International Phonetic Alphabet include the palatal approximant [j] (as in yes), the labial-velar approximant [w] (as in water), and the alveolar approximant [ɹ] (as in red in many English dialects). The lateral approximant [l] (as in lamp) and various retroflex or approximant vowels such as [ɻ] also occur. Some analyses distinguish between central approximants, which have the constriction along the center of the vocal tract, and lateral approximants, which allow air to pass along one or both sides of the tongue. In many languages, the term glides is used for the subset that commonly forms part of syllable onsets, while other approximants may function as consonantal members of syllable nuclei or clusters.

Approximants contrast with stops, fricatives, and affricates by the absence of a sharp air turbulence; they often pattern with vowels in phonological systems. Cross-linguistically, approximants are widespread and appear across a range of articulatory settings, including bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, and velar places of articulation, as well as glottal varieties. They are an essential category in phonetics and phonology for describing the sounds of human languages.