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
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)q
Unicode (hex)U+0071
X-SAMPAq
Braille⠟ (braille pattern dots-12345)

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 advancedq⟩) or ⟨⟩ (retractedk⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are q_+ and k_-, respectively.

Features

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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.
  • Its 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

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Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abaza хъацӀа/qac’a [qat͡sʼa] 'man'
Adyghe атакъэ/atáqa [ataːqa] 'rooster'
Aleut[2] ҟи́гаҟъ/qiighax̂ [qiːɣaχ] 'grass'
Arabic Modern Standard[3] قـط/qiṭṭ [qitˤː] 'cat' See Arabic phonology
Hejazi قِـمَّة/qimma [qɪmːa] 'peak' Allophone of /g/. See Hejazi Arabic phonology
Gulf[4] غـداً/qaden [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/q"ál [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/q [qɑð] 'goose'
Chechen кхоъ/qo’ [qɔʔ] 'three'
Chukchi Нычымйыӄэн/nëčëmyëqen [nət͡ʃəmjəqen] 'bitter'
Dawsahak [qoq] 'dry'
English Australian[6] caught [ḵʰoːt] 'caught' Pre-uvular; allophone of /k/ before ɔ 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 u: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
Mizrahi See Mizrahi Hebrew
Shar'ab Temani קול/qöl [qøːl] See Yemenite Hebrew
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 ᐃᐦᐃᑉᕆᐅ/ihipqiuqtuq [ihipɢiuqtuq] 'explore' See Inuit phonology
Iraqw qeet [qeːt] 'break'
Kabardian къэбэрдей/qabardey [qabardej] 'Kabardian'
Kabyle ⵜⴰⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ [θɐqβæjlɪθ] '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 [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/qán [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/täqŕ [tʲaqr̥] 'three'
Ossetian Iron Дзæуджыхъæу/Zawjëqaw [ˈzə̹ʊ̯d͡ʒɪ̈qə̹ʊ̯] 'Vladikavkaz'
Persian Early New Persian قَـاشُق/qaşuq */qaːʃuq/ 'spoon' May be allophonicly voiced to [ɢ] before a voiced stop. See Persian phonology.
Dari standard [qɑːˈʃʊq]
Tajik standard қошуқ/qoşuq [qɔʃuq]
Some Iranian speakers قـورباغه/qurbağe [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/qam [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 gwildma̱p'a [ɡʷildmqɑpʼa] 'tobacco'
Turkmen ak [ɑ:q] 'white' Allophone of /k/ next to back vowels
Ubykh qhë [qʰɜ] 'grave' One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur ئاق/aq [ɑq] 'white'
Uzbek[17] qol [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/márq [maːrq] 'one'
Southern атахл/ataql [ataql] 'two'
!Xóõ ǀqháá [ǀ͡qʰɑ́ː] 'to smooth'

See also

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Notes

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  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. ^ a b Silva (2015), p. 39.
  6. ^ a b Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
  7. ^ Torgersen, Kerswill & Fox (2007).
  8. ^ a b "John Wells's phonetic blog: k-backing". 27 July 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  9. ^ Cheshire, Jenny; Kerswill, Paul; Fox, Sue; Torgersen, Eivind (2011-04-01). "Contact, the feature pool and the speech community: The emergence of Multicultural London English" (PDF). Journal of Sociolinguistics. 15 (2): 151–196. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00478.x. ISSN 1467-9841. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  10. ^ a b "Glossary". Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  11. ^ a b c Khan & Weise (2013), p. 235.
  12. ^ Shapiro, Michael C. (1989). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 20. ISBN 978-81-208-0508-8. In addition to the basic consonantal sounds discussed in sections 3.1 and 3.2, many speakers use any or all five additional consonants (क़ , ख़ ḳh,ग़ ġ, ज़ z, फ़ f) in words of foreign origin (primarily from Persian, Arabic, English, and Portuguese). The last two of these, ज़ z and फ़ f, are the initial sounds in English zig and fig respectively. The consonant क़ is a voiceless uvular stop, somewhat like k, but pronounced further back in the mouth. ख़ ḳh is a voiceless fricative similar in pronunciation to the final sound of the German ach. ग़ ġ is generally pronounced as a voiceless uvular fricative, although it is occasionally heard as a stop rather than a fricative. In devanāgari each of these five sounds is represented by the use of a subscript dot under one of the basic consonant signs. In practice, however, the dot is often omitted, leaving it to the reader to render the correct pronunciation on the basis of his prior knowledge of the language.
  13. ^ Morelli, Sarah (20 December 2019). A Guru's Journey: Pandit Chitresh Das and Indian Classical Dance in Diaspora. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-05172-2. Hindi has a nasal sound roughly equivalent to the n in the English sang, transliterated here as or , and has two slightly differing sh sounds, transliterated as ś and . ... A few words contain consonants…from Arabic, Persian, Portuguese, and English: क़ (ق) is transliterated as q, ख़ (خ) as kh, ग़ (غ) as g, ज़ (ظ ,ز, or ض) as z, झ़ (ژ) as zh, and फ़ (ف) as f.
  14. ^ Kulshreshtha, Manisha; Mathur, Ramkumar (24 March 2012). Dialect Accent Features for Establishing Speaker Identity: A Case Study. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-4614-1137-6. A few sounds, borrowed from the other languages like Persian and Arabic, are written with a dot (bindu or nukta) as shown in Table 2.2. …those who come from rural backgrounds and do not speak really good Khariboli, pronounce these sounds as the nearest equivalents in Hindi.
  15. ^ Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
  16. ^ Mc Laughlin (2005), p. 203.
  17. ^ a b Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.

References

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