Voiced uvular fricative

Features of the voiced uvular fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence. In many languages it is closer to an approximant, however, and no language distinguishes the two at the uvular articulation.

• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.

• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

In Western Europe, a uvular trill pronunciation of rhotic consonants spread from northern French to several dialects and registers of Basque,[2] Catalan, Danish, Dutch, German, Judaeo-Spanish, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Swedish, and Yiddish. However, not all of them remain a uvular trill today.

In Brazilian Portuguese, it is usually a velar fricative ([x], [ɣ]), voiceless uvular fricative [χ], or glottal transition ([h], [ɦ]), except in southern Brazil, where alveolar, velar and uvular trills as well as the voiced uvular fricative predominate. Because such uvular rhotics often do not contrast with alveolar ones, IPA transcriptions may often use ⟨r⟩ to represent them for ease of typesetting. For more information, see guttural R.

Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note, "There is... a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."[3]

It is also present on most Turkic languages, except for Turkish and Turkmen, and Caucasian languages. It could also come in ɣ.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		цыҕ cëğ	[tsəʁ]	'marten'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		тыгъэ tëğa	[təʁa]	'sun'
Afrikaans	Parts of the former Cape Province[4]	rooi	[ʁoːi̯]	'red'	May be a trill [ʀ] instead.[4] See Afrikaans phonology
Aleut	Atkan dialect	chamĝul	[tʃɑmʁul]	'to wash'
Arabic	Modern Standard[5]	غرفة‎ ġurfa	[ˈʁʊrfɐ]	'room'	Mostly transcribed as /ɣ/, may be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect.[6] See Arabic phonology
Archi		гъӀабос ġabos	[ʁˤabos][7]	'croak'
Armenian	Eastern[8]	ղեկ łek	[ʁɛk]	'rudder'
Avar		тIагъур thaġur	[tʼaˈʁur]	'cap'
Bashkir		туғыҙ tuğïð	[tuˈʁɤð]	'nine'
Basque	Northern dialects	urre	[uʁe]	'gold'
Chilcotin		relkɨsh	[ʁəlkɪʃ]	'he walks'
Danish	Standard[9]	rød	[ʁ̞œ̠ð̠]	'red'	Most often an approximant when initial.[10] In other positions, it can be either a fricative (also described as voiceless [χ]) or an approximant.[9] Also described as pharyngeal [ʕ̞].[11] It can be a fricative trill in word-initial positions when emphasizing a word.[12] See Danish phonology
Dutch[13][14][15][16]	Belgian Limburg[17][18]	rad	[ʁɑt]	'wheel'	Either a fricative or an approximant.[15][17][16][14][19] Realization of /r/ varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology
	Central Netherlands[20]
	East Flanders[18]
	Northern Netherlands[20]
	Randstad[20]
	Southern Netherlands[20]
English	Dyfed[21]	red	[ʁɛd]	'red'	Not all speakers.[21] Alveolar in other Welsh accents.
	Gwynedd[21]
	North-east Leinster[22]				Corresponds to [ɹ ~ ɾ ~ ɻ] in other dialects of English in Ireland.
	Northumbrian[23][24]				Described both as a fricative[23] and an approximant.[24] More rarely it is a trill [ʀ].[23] Mostly found in rural areas of Northumberland and northern County Durham, declining. See English phonology and Northumbrian Burr.
	Sierra Leonean[23]				More rarely a trill [ʀ].[23]
French		rester	[ʁɛste]	'to stay'	See French phonology
German	Standard[25]	Rost	[ʁɔst]	'rust'	Either a fricative or, more often, an approximant. In free variation with a uvular trill. See Standard German phonology
	Lower Rhine[25]
	Swabian[26]		[ʁ̞oʃt]		An approximant.[26] It is the realization of /ʁ/ in onsets,[26] otherwise it is an epiglottal approximant.[26]
Hebrew	Biblical	עוֹרֵב	[ʁoˈreβ]	'raven'	See Biblical Hebrew phonology.
	Modern	עוֹרֵב	[oˈʁ̞ev]		See Modern Hebrew phonology.[27]
Inuktitut	East Inuktitut dialect	marruuk	[mɑʁʁuuk]	'two'
Italian	Some speakers[28]	raro	[ˈʁäːʁo]	'rare'	Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill [r], due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in Alto Adige (bordering with German-speaking Austria), Val d'Aosta (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a uvular trill [ʀ] or a labiodental approximant [ʋ].[28] See Italian phonology.
Kabardian		бгъэ bğa	[bʁa]	'eagle'
Kabyle		ⴱⴻⵖ bbeɣ بغ‎	[bːəʁ]	'to dive'
Kazakh		саған, saǵan	[sɑˈʁɑn]	'you' (dat. sing.)
Kyrgyz		жамгыр camğır'	[dʒɑmˈʁɯr]	'rain'
Lakota		aǧúyapi	[aʁʊjapɪ]	'bread'
Limburgish	Maastrichtian[29]	drei	[dʀ̝ɛi̯]	'three'	Fricative trill; the fricative component varies between uvular and post-velar.[29][30]
	Weert dialect[30]	drej	[dʀ̝æj]
Luxembourgish[31]		Parmesan	[ˈpʰɑʁməzaːn]	'parmesan'	Appears as an allophone of /ʀ/ between a vowel and a voiced consonant and as an allophone of /ʁ/ between a back vowel and another vowel (back or otherwise). A minority of speakers use it as the only consonantal variety of /ʀ/, also where it is trilled in the standard language.[31] See Luxembourgish phonology
Malay	Perak dialect	Perak	[peʁɑk̚]	'Perak'	See Malay phonology
Norwegian	Southern dialects	rar	[ʁ̞ɑːʁ̞]	'strange'	Either an approximant or a fricative. See Norwegian phonology
	Southwestern dialects
Ossetic	Iron	æгъгъæд æğğæd	[ˈəʁːəd]	'enough'
Portuguese	European[32]	carro	[ˈkaʁu]	'car'	Word-initial /ʁ/ is commonly realized as a fricative trill in Lisbon.[12] See Portuguese phonology
	Setubalense[33]	ruralizar	[ʁuʁəɫiˈzaʁ]	'to ruralize'	Often trilled. Due to a merger, corresponds to both /ɾ/ and /ʁ/ in other dialects.
	Fluminense[33][34]	ardência	[ɐʁˈdẽsjə]	'burning feeling'	Due to 19th century Portuguese influence, Rio de Janeiro's dialect merged coda /ɾ/ into /ʁ/.[35] Often trilled. In free variation with [ɣ], [ʕ] and [ɦ] before voiced sounds, [x], [χ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants
	Sulista	arroz	[ɐˈʁos]	'rice'
Spanish	Puerto Rican	carro	[ˈkaʁo] or [ˈkaχo]	'car'	Word-initial, and inter-vocallic double r ('rr') /ʁ/ are commonly realized as a fricative trill in rural sectors and generally (but not exclusively) lower socioeconomic strata among Puerto Ricans. [ʁ].[36]
Swedish	Southern dialects	rör	[ʁɶʁ]	'pipe(s)'	See Swedish phonology
Tatar		яңгыр, yañğır	[jɒŋˈʁɯr]	'rain'
Tsez		агъи aɣi	[ˈʔaʁi]	'bird'
Ubykh		[ʁa]		'his'	Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur		ئۇيغۇر	[ʊjʁʊr]	'Uyghur'
Uzbek		ogʻir	[ɒˈʁɨr]	'heavy'
West Flemish	Bruges dialect[37]	onder	[ˈuŋəʀ̝]	'under'	A fricative trill with little friction. An alveolar [r] is used in the neighbouring rural area.[37]
Yakut		тоҕус toğus	[toʁus]	'nine'
Zhuang		roek	[ʁɔ̌k]	'six'

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• Guttural

• List of languages with [ʁ] on PHOIBLE