Voiced uvular plosive

Voiced post-velar or pre-uvular plosive
Voiced post-velar or pre-uvular plosive
ɢ̟
ɡ᫢
Audio sample
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Voiced uvular plosive
Voiced uvular plosive
ɢ
IPA number	112
Audio sample
	source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɢ
Unicode (hex)	U+0262
X-SAMPA	G\
Braille
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A voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiced velar plosive [ɡ], 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 ⟨ɢ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter g.

[ɢ] is a rare sound, even compared to other uvulars. Vaux proposes a phonological explanation: uvular consonants normally involve a neutral or a retracted tongue root, whereas voiced stops often involve an advanced tongue root: two articulations that cannot physically co-occur. This leads many languages of the world to have a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] instead as the voiced counterpart of the voiceless uvular plosive. Examples are Inuit; several Turkic languages such as Uyghur; several Northwest Caucasian languages such as Abkhaz; as well as several Northeast Caucasian languages such as Ingush.

Features

Features of a voiced uvular stop:

Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, it is a plosive.
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 that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most speech sounds.

Occurrence

Uvular

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Sudanese	بقرة	[bɑɢɑrɑ]	'cow'	Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology
Arabic	Yemeni	قات	[ɢɑːt]^ⓘ	'Khat'	Some dialects. Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology
Bugan	Manlong dialect		[ɴɢei˧˩]	'tilted, sloping, inclined'	Has both plain and prenasalized variants. See Manlong Bugan phonology
Low German	Rügen dialect	lang	[la̱ɴɢ̥]	'long'
Ket		báŋquk	[baŋ˩˧ɢuk˧˩]	'cave in the ground'	Allophone of /q/ after /ŋ/.
Kwak'wala		ǥilakas'la	[ɢilakasʔla]	'thank you'
Lishan Didan	Urmi Dialect	בקא‎/baqqa	[baɢːɑ]	'frog'	Allophone of /q/ when between a vowel/sonorant and a vowel.
Malto		तेंग़े	[t̪eɴɢe]	'to tell'	Allophone of /ʁ/ after /ŋ/, /ʁ, ŋʁ/ is /h/ in Southern and Western dialects. See Malto language#Phonology.
Mongolian		Монгол ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ	[mɔɴɢɔ̆ɮ]	'Mongolian'	Allophone of /g/ before back vowels, phonemic word-finally.
Nivkh		ньыӈ ӷан	[ɲɤŋ ɢæn]	'our dog'	Allophone of /q/
Persian	Iranian	قهوه	[ɢæhˈve]	'coffee'	See Persian phonology.
Somali		Muqdisho	[muɢdiʃɔ]	'Mogadishu'	Allophone of /q/. See Somali phonology
Tabasaran		дугу	[d̪uɢu]	'he' (ergative)
Tsakhur		къгяйэ	[ɢajɛ]	'stone'
Turkmen		gar	[ɢɑɾ]	'snow'	An allophone of /ɡ/ next to back vowels
Xumi	Lower	[ɢʶo˩˥]		'to stew'	Slightly affricated; occurs only in a few words. Corresponds to the cluster /Nɡ/ in Upper Xumi.

Pre-uvular

There is also a voiced post-velar or pre-uvular plosive in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular plosive, though not as front as the prototypical velar plosive. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ɢ̟⟩, (symbol denotes an advanced ⟨ɢ⟩), ⟨ɡ̠⟩ or ⟨ɡ᫢⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ɡ⟩).

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
English	Australian	gaudy	[ˈɡ̠oːɾi]	'gaudy'	Pre-uvular; allophone of /ɡ/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/. See Australian English phonology
Yanyuwa		kuykurlu	[ɡ̠uɡ̟uɭu]	'sacred'	Pre-uvular. Contrasts plain and prenasalized versions

Notes

↑ Vaux (2001).
1 2 Watson (2002), p. 13.
↑ Li, Yunbing 李云兵 (2005). Bùgēngyǔ yánjiū 布赓语研究 [A Study of Bugeng [Bugan]] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe. p. 333.
1 2 Georg (2007), pp. 49, 67 and 77.
↑ Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 365.
↑ Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365–366.
↑ Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 383, 387.
↑ 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".
1 2 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
1 2 Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), pp. 34–35.

References

Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013), "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 363–379, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157, JSTOR 26347850, archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-07
Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013), "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (3): 381–396, doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169, archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-23
Georg, Stefan (2007), A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak), Languages of Asia, vol. 1, Brill, p. 78, doi:10.1163/ej.9781901903584.i-328, ISBN 978-90-04-21350-0
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
Mannell, R.; Cox, F.; Harrington, J. (2009), "Phonetic (Narrow) Transcription of Australian English", An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University, archived from the original on 2012-03-25
Watson, Janet C. E. (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, The Phonology of the World's Languages, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199257591
Vaux, Bert (December 2001) [orig. pub. 1999, Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 7], A Note on Pharyngeal Features, Version 2

External links

List of languages with [ɢ] on PHOIBLE

[FOOTNOTEVaux2001-1] Vaux (2001).

[FOOTNOTEWatson200213-2] 1 2 Watson (2002), p. 13.

[3] Li, Yunbing 李云兵 (2005). Bùgēngyǔ yánjiū 布赓语研究 [A Study of Bugeng [Bugan]] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe. p. 333.

[FOOTNOTEGeorg200749,_67_and_77-4] 1 2 Georg (2007), pp. 49, 67 and 77.

[FOOTNOTEChirkovaChen2013365-5] Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 365.

[FOOTNOTEChirkovaChen2013365–366-6] Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365–366.

[FOOTNOTEChirkovaChenKocjančič_Antolík2013383,_387-7] Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 383, 387.

[8] 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".

[FOOTNOTEMannellCoxHarrington2009-9] 1 2 Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).

[FOOTNOTELadefogedMaddieson199634–35-10] 1 2 Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), pp. 34–35.