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 Number | 111 |
| Audio sample | |
| Encoding | |
| Entity (decimal) | q |
| Unicode (hex) | U+0071 |
| X-SAMPA | q |
| Braille |  |
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 ⟨q̟⟩ or ⟨q˖⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨q⟩) or ⟨k̠⟩ (retracted ⟨k⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are q_+ and k_-, respectively.
Features
Features of the voiceless 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, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant 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 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.
- The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.
Occurrence
| Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abaza | хъацӀа/kh"atsḥa | [qat͡sʼa] | 'man' | ||
| Adyghe | атакъэ/ataq"ė | ⓘ | 'rooster' | ||
| Aleut[2] | ҟи́гаҟъ/qiighax̂ | [qiːɣaχ] | 'grass' | ||
| Arabic | Modern Standard[3] | قـط/qiṭṭ | ⓘ | 'cat' | See Arabic phonology |
| Hejazi | قِـمَّة/qimma | [qɪmːa] | 'peak' | Allophone of /g/. See Hejazi Arabic phonology | |
| Gulf[4] | غـداً/ghadān | [qədæn] | 'tomorrow' | Corresponds to /ɣ/ in other dialects. | |
| Algerian | |||||
| Assyrian | ܩܐ/qa | [qa] | 'for' | Often realized as a tense /k/[vague] rather than uvular /q/. | |
| Archi | хъал/kh"àl | [qaːl] | 'human skin' | ||
| Avá-Canoeiro[5] | [ˈqɔːtõ] | 'this' | Possible realisation of /k/. In the speech of people aged 40 to 80 years, the consonant is in free variation with [qˤ], [qʰ] and [k] in post-tonic or primarily or secondarily stressed syllables.[5] | ||
| Bashkir | ҡаҙ/qað | ⓘ | 'goose' | ||
| Chechen | кхоъ/qo’ | [qɔʔ] | 'three' | ||
| Chukchi | Нычымйыӄэн | [nət͡ʃəmjəqen] | 'bitter' | ||
| Dawsahak | [qoq] | 'dry' | |||
| English | Australian[6] | caught | [ḵʰoːt] | 'caught' | Pre-uvular; allophone of /k/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/.[6] See Australian English phonology |
| Multicultural London[7][8] | cut | [qʌt] | 'cut' | Allophone of /k/ before non-high back vowels.[8][9] | |
| Non-local Dublin[10] | back | [bɑq] | 'back' | Allophone of /k/ after a retracted vowel for some speakers.[10] | |
| Eyak | g̣u:jih | [quːtʃih] | 'wolf' | ||
| German | Chemnitz dialect[11] | Rock | [qɔkʰ] | 'skirt' | In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [χ] and [ʀ̥].[11] Does not occur in the coda.[11] |
| Greenlandic | illoqarpoq | [iɬːoqɑppɔq] | 'he has a house' | See Greenlandic phonology | |
| Hebrew | Biblical | קול/qol | [qol] | 'voice' | See Biblical Hebrew phonology |
| Hungarian | korom | [qorom] | 'soot' | Possible allophone of /k/ before back vowels. See Hungarian phonology | |
| Hindustani | Hindi | बर्क़/barq | [bərq] | 'lightning' | Mostly in Hindi–Urdu loanwords from Arabic, pronounced mainly in Urdu and by educated Hindi speakers, with rural Hindi speakers often pronouncing it as a [k]. See Hindustani phonology[12][13][14] |
| Urdu | بَرق/barq | ||||
| Inuktitut | ᐃᐦᐃᑉᕆᐅᖅᑐᖅ/ihipqiuqtuq’ | [ihipɢiuqtuq] | 'explore' | See Inuit phonology | |
| Iraqw | qeet | [qeːt] | 'break' | ||
| Kabardian | къэбэрдей/k"ėbėrdey | ⓘ | 'Kabardian' | ||
| Kabyle | ⵜⴰⵇⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ | ⓘ | 'Kabyle language' | May be voiced [ɢ]. | |
| taqbaylit | |||||
| ثاقـبيليث | |||||
| Kavalan | qaqa | [qaqa] | 'elder brother' | ||
| Kazakh | Қазақстан/Qazaqstan | [qɑzɑqˈstɑn] | 'Kazakhstan' | An allophone of /k/ before back vowels | |
| Ket | қан | [qan] | 'begin' | ||
| Klallam | qəmtəm | [qəmtəm] | 'iron' | ||
| Kurdish | Sorani | قـوتابخانە/qutabxane | [qutɑbxɑnə] | 'School' | An allophone of /k/ before back vowels |
| Kurmanji | Qalikdar | [qɑlɯkdɑr] | 'crustacean' | An allophone of /k/ before back vowels | |
| Kutenai | qaykiťwu | [qajkitʼwu] | 'nine' | ||
| Kyrgyz | Кыргызстан/Qırğızstan | [qɯrʁɯsˈstɑn] | 'Kyrgyzstan' | An allophone of /k/ before back vowels | |
| Lishan Didan | Urmi Dialect | אקלא/aqla | [aqlɑ] | 'foot, leg' | |
| Maltese | Archaic Cottonera Dialect | qattus | [qɐˈtːuːs] | 'cat' | |
| Malto | क़ान | [qa:n] | 'eye' | Corresponds to /x/ in other North Dravidian languages. | |
| Nez Perce | ʔaw̓líwaaʔinpqawtaca | [ʔawˀɪlwaːʔinpqawtat͡sa] | 'I go to scoop him up in the fire' | ||
| Nivkh | тяқр̆/tyaqrh | [tʲaqr̥] | 'three' | ||
| Ossetian | Iron | Дзæуджыхъæу/dzæudžiq"æu | [ˈzə̹ʊ̯d͡ʒɪ̈qə̹ʊ̯] | 'Vladikavkaz' | |
| Persian | Early New Persian | قَـاشُق/qāšuq | */qaːʃuq/ | 'spoon' | May be allophonicly voiced to [ɢ] before a voiced stop. See Persian phonology. |
| Dari standard | [qɑːˈʃʊq] | ||||
| Tajik standard | қошуқ/qošuq | [qɔʃuq] | |||
| Some Iranian speakers | قـورباغه/qurbaġe | [qurbɒɣe] | 'frog' | In Western Iranian dialects /q/ and /ɣ/ have merged into /ɢ/. Though some dialects in eastern Iran may preserve the distinction in some words. See Persian phonology. | |
| Quechua[15] | qallu | [qaʎu] | 'tongue' | ||
| Sahaptin | qu | [qu] | 'heavy' | ||
| Seediq | Seediq | [ˈseˈʔediq] | 'Seediq' | ||
| Seereer-Siin[16] | [example needed] | — | — | ||
| Shor | қам | [qɑm] | 'shaman' | ||
| Somali | qaab | [qaːb] | 'shape' | See Somali phonology | |
| St’át’imcets | teq | [təq] | 'to touch' | ||
| Tlingit | ghagw | [qɐ́kʷ] | 'tree spine' | Tlingit contrasts six different uvular stops | |
| Tsimshian | gwildmḵa̱p'a | [ɡʷildmqɑpʼa] | 'tobacco' | ||
| Turkmen | ak | [ɑ:q] | 'white' | Allophone of /k/ next to back vowels | |
| Ubykh | [qʰɜ] | 'grave' | One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology | ||
| Uyghur | ئاق/aq | [ɑq] | 'white' | ||
| Uzbek[17] | qo'l | [q̟oɫ] | 'arm' | Pre-uvular; sometimes realized as an affricate [q͡χ˖].[17] | |
| Western Neo-Aramaic | Bakh'a | [example needed] | Pre-uvular, though in Ma'loula it is slightly more front. | ||
| Ma'loula | [example needed] | ||||
| Yup'ik | meq | [məq] | 'fresh water' | ||
| Yukaghir | Northern | маарх/maarq | [maːrq] | 'one' | |
| Southern | атахл/ataql | [ataql] | 'two' | ||
| !Xóõ | ǀqháá | ⓘ | 'to smooth' | ||
See also
Notes
References
External links
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