Voiceless uvular implosive
ʛ̥
ʠ
qʼ↓
Audio sample

A voiceless uvular implosive is a rare consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ʛ̥  or qʼ↓. A dedicated IPA letter, ʠ, was withdrawn in 1993.

Features

Occurrence

A voiceless uvular implosive has been claimed for several Mayan languages.

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Kaqchikel[1][full citation needed] ijobʼäl [ʛ̥iχoˈɓəɬ] 'watch, clock' In word final position, [ʛ̥] is in free variation with [qʼ]; elsewhere only [ʛ̥] appears. See Kaqchikel language.
Mam[2] ootj [ʛ̥oːtʰχ] 'dough'
Uspantek[3] jq’aab [χʛ̥aːpˀ] 'his/her hand' [ʛ̥] is in free variation with [qˀ] in all positions.

See also

References

  1. ^ Patal Majzul et al., 2000, pp. 24ff.
  2. ^ England, Nora C. (1983). A grammar of Mam, a Mayan language. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292729278. OCLC 748935484.
  3. ^ Bennett, Ryan; Harvey, Meg; Henderson, Robert; Méndez López, Tomás Alberto (September 2022). "The phonetics and phonology of Uspanteko (Mayan)". Language and Linguistics Compass. 16 (9). doi:10.1111/lnc3.12467. ISSN 1749-818X.