aproximante

Aproximate is a term used in phonetics and phonology to refer to a class of consonants known in English as approximants. They are produced with a relatively open vocal tract and a constriction that is narrower than a vowel but not so tight as in fricatives or plosives, resulting in little or no turbulent airflow. This makes approximants sonorant sounds, typically voiced, and they often function as syllable onsets or vowels in some languages.

The main subtypes of approximants include glides (also called semivowels), such as the palatal approximant [j] as in yes and the labio-velar approximant [w] as in water, as well as liquids, such as the alveolar lateral [l] and the rhotic approximants [ɹ] or [ɻ] in various languages. Some languages also have other approximants, including central or retroflex variants. While most approximants are voiced, there are rare cases of voiceless approximants in certain languages or phonetic contexts.

In linguistic analysis, approximants are typically classified as sonorants, a broad group that also includes vowels, nasals, and other liquids. They are distinct from fricatives, which produce continuous noise, and from stops, which involve complete constriction followed by airflow release. Cross-linguistically, approximants are common and play a crucial role in phonotactics, syllable structure, and the distribution of neighboring sounds.

Innotation, the symbol set for approximants is in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), including [j], [w], [l], and [ɹ], among others. The term reflects the idea of bringing two articulators “near” each other without creating a turbulent constriction, hence the etymology from Latin approximare meaning to draw near.