Vedic.

Ancient language of the north-west of the Indian subcontinent, the earliest form of what is later
called *Sanskrit. Attested by collections of religious formulae and hymns transmitted orally (the Vedas)
of which the most archaic linguistically is the Rgeveda or Rigveda, datable to the second millennium BC.
vehicular language = langue vhiculaire.
velar. Articulated with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (or velum). E.g. [k] in [kat] (cat) is a
velar *stop; [x] in some pronunciations of loch ( [Ix] ) a velar *fricative.
velaric (*Airstream mechanism) involving suction of the tongue against the roof of the mouth; hence
with the closure of part of the tongue against the velum or soft palate (velum). Used in the production of
*click, Lingual, suggested by J. Laver, would be a more appropriate term.
Velarization. *Secondary articulation (1) in which the back of the tongue is raised towards the soft palate
(velum). E.g. an l at the end of a word is velarized ( [] ) in many form of English.
velic closure. Raising of the soft palate (velum) so that air cannot pass in or out through the nose. Velic
release of a stop consonant is release by lowering the velum: e.g. of [t] in [b tn] ( button).
velum. The soft or fleshy part of the roof of the mouth; = soft palate.
verb (V). One of a class of lexical units whose characteristic syntactic role is as a *predicate (2) and
which is characteristically that of words denoting actions or processes: e.g. run, make, melt. Verbs and
nouns were distinguished in antiquity as two principal *parts of speech without which a complete
sentence could not be formed; often taken, for similar reasons, to be *substantive universals.
verbal. 1. Pertaining to or involving verbs or verb. Thus sing-in sings or singer is a verbal root or stem; -s
in sings is a verbal ending or suffix; He sings it is a verbal, as opposed to a *nominal, sentence. 2.
Consistingof words: e.g. he, sings, and it form the verbal component, as distinct e.g. from an
international component, of a sentence or utterance He SINGS it.