Voiceless uvular plosive

The voiceless uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive [k], except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is q, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is q.

Voiceless uvular plosive
q
IPA Number111
Encoding
Entity (decimal)q
Unicode (hex)U+0071
X-SAMPAq
Braille
Audio sample
source · help

There is also the voiceless pre-uvular plosive[1] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular consonant, though not as front as the prototypical velar consonant. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as or (both symbols denote an advanced q) or (retracted k). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are q_+ and k_-, respectively.

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular stop:

  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • 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.

Occurrence

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
AbazaхъацӀа/kh"atsḥa[qat͡sʼa]'man'
Adygheатакъэ/ataq"ė[ataːqa] 'rooster'
Aleut[2]ҟи́гаҟъ / qiighax̂[qiːɣaχ]'grass'
Arabic Modern Standard[3] قط/qit't [qitˤtˤ]  'cat' See Arabic phonology
Hejazi قِمَّة/qimma [qɪmːa] 'peak' Allophone of /g/. See Hejazi Arabic phonology
Gulf[4]غداً/qadun[qədæn]'tomorrow'Corresponds to /ɣ/ in other dialects.
Algerian
Assyrian Neo-Aramaicܩ/qa[qa]'for'Corresponds to /k/ in the Urmian and Jilu varieties.
Archiхъал/kh"àl[qaːl]'human skin'
Bashkir ҡаҙ / q [qɑð]  'goose'
Chechenкхоъ / qo’[qɔʔ]'three'
Dawsahak[qoq]'dry'
EnglishAustralian[5]caught[ḵʰoːt]'caught'Pre-uvular; allophone of /k/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/.[5] See Australian English phonology
Multicultural London[6][7]cut[qʌt]'cut'Allophone of /k/ before back vowels.[7]
Non-local Dublin[8]back[bɑq]'back'Allophone of /k/ after /æ/ for some speakers.[8]
Eyaku.jih[quːtʃih]'wolf'
GermanChemnitz dialect[9]Rock[qɔkʰ]'skirt'In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [χ] and [ʀ̥].[9] Does not occur in the coda.[9]
Greenlandicilloqarpoq[iɬːoqɑʁpɔq]'he has a house'
HebrewIraqiקול/kol[qol]'voice'See Biblical Hebrew phonology
Hindustani Hindi बर्क़/barq [bərq] 'lightning' Mostly in loanwords from Arabic, pronounced mainly in Urdu - Hindi speakers tend to pronounce it as a k. See Hindustani phonology
Urdu بَرق/barq
Inuktitutᐃ"ᐃᑉᕆᐅᖅᑐᖅ / ihipqiuqtuq[ihipɢiuqtuq]'explore'Represented by a . See Inuit phonology
Iraqwqeet[qeːt]'break'
Kabardianкъэбэрдей/k"ėbėrdey[qabardej] 'Kabardian'
Kabyleⵜⴰⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ[taqβæjliθ] 'Kabyle language'May be voiced [ɢ].
taqbaylit
ثاقبيليث
Kavalanqaqa[qaqa]'elder brother'
KazakhҚазақстан/Qazaqstan[qɑzɑqˈstɑn]'Kazakhstan'An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Ketқан[qan]'begin'
Klallamqəmtəm[qəmtəm]'iron'
Kutenaiqaykiťwu[qajkitʼwu]'nine'
Hanakialehké[ləqə:]'easy, light'
Nez Perceʔaw̓líwaaʔinpqawtaca[ʔawˀɪlwaːʔinpqawtat͡sa]'I go to scoop him up in the fire'
Nivkhтяқр̆/tyaqrh[tʲaqr̥]'three'
OssetianIronДзæуджыхъæу/džæudžiq"æu[ˈzə̹ʊ̯d͡ʒɪ̈qə̹ʊ̯]'Vladikavkaz'
Persianقورباغه/quurbaghe[quːrbɒɣe]'frog'See Persian phonology
Quechua[10]qallu[qaʎu]'tongue'
Sahaptinqu[qu]'heavy'
SeediqSeediq[ˈsəːdʑɪq]'Seediq'
Seereer-Siin[11]
Somaliqaab[qaːb]'shape'See Somali phonology
St’át’imcetsteq[təq]'to touch'
Tajikқошуқ/qošuq[qɔʃuq]'spoon'
Tlingitghagw[qɐ́kʷ]'tree spine'Tlingit contrasts six different uvular stops
Tsimshiangwildma̱p'a[ɡʷildmqɑpʼa]'tobacco'
Turkmenak[ɑ:q]'white'Contrasts with /k/
Ubykh[qʰɜ]'grave'One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghurئاق / aq[ɑq]'white'
Uzbek[12]qo'l[q̟oɫ]'arm'Pre-uvular; sometimes realized as an affricate [q͡χ˖].[12]
Western Neo-AramaicBakh'aPre-uvular, though in Ma'loula it is slightly more front.
Ma'loula
Yup'ikmeq[məq]'fresh water'
YukaghirNorthernмаарх/maarq[maːrq]'one'
Southernатахл/ataql[ataql]'two'
!Xóõ!qhàà[ǃ͡qʰɑ̀ː]'water'

See also

Notes

  1. Instead of "pre-uvular", it can be called "advanced uvular", "fronted uvular", "post-velar", "retracted velar" or "backed velar". For simplicity, this article uses only the term "pre-uvular".
  2. Ladefoged (2005), p. 165.
  3. Watson (2002), p. 13.
  4. Qafisheh (1977), p. 266.
  5. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
  6. Torgersen, Kerswill & Fox (2007).
  7. "John Wells's phonetic blog: k-backing". 27 July 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  8. "Glossary". Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  9. Khan & Weise (2013), p. 235.
  10. Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
  11. Mc Laughlin (2005), p. 203.
  12. Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.

References

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