Velarization

Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four diacritics:

Although electropalatographic studies have shown that there is a continuum of possible degrees of velarization, the IPA does not specify any way to indicate degrees of velarization, for this difference has not been found to be contrastive in any language. However, the IPA convention of doubling diacritics to indicate a greater degree can be used for any feature: ⟨ˠˠ⟩.