Voiceless uvular plosive
q
IPA Number111
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)q
Unicode (hex)U+0071
X-SAMPAq
Braille
⠟ (braille pattern dots-12345)

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.

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

Voiceless uvular plosive.svg

Features of the voiceless uvular stop:

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Abaza хъацӀа/kh"atsḥa [qat͡sʼa] 'man'
Adyghe атакъэ/ataq"ė [ataːqa] (help·info) 'rooster'
Aleut[2] ҟи́гаҟъ / qiighax̂ [qiːɣaχ] 'grass'
Arabic Modern Standard[3] قط/qiṭṭ [qitˤː] (help·info) '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 ܩܐ qa [qa] 'for' Often realized as a tense /k/ 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 [qɑð] (help·info) '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 [bæq] 'back' Allophone of /k/ after /æ/ 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
Hindustani Hindi बर्क़/barq [bərq] 'lightning' Mostly in loanwords from Arabic, pronounced mainly in Urdu - Hindi speakers usually pronounce it as a [k]. See Hindustani phonology
Urdu بَرق/barq
Inuktitut ᐃ"ᐃᑉᕆᐅᖅᑐᖅ / ihipqiuqtuq’ [ihipɢiuqtuq] 'explore' See Inuit phonology
Iraqw qeet [qeːt] 'break'
Kabardian къэбэрдей/k"ėbėrdey [qabardej] (help·info) 'Kabardian'
Kabyle ⵜⴰⵇⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ [taqβæjliθ] (help·info) 'Kabyle language' May be voiced [ɢ].
taqbaylit
ثاقبيليث
Kavalan qaqa [qaqa] 'elder brother'
Kazakh Қазақстан/Qazaqstan [qɑzɑqˈstɑn] 'Kazakhstan' An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kurdish (Sorani) قوتابخانە/qutabxane [qutɑbxɑnə] 'School' An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kurdish (Kurmanji) Qalikdar [qɑlɯkdɑr] 'crustacean' An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kyrgyz Кыргызстан/Qırğızstan [qɯrʁɯsˈstɑn] 'Kyrgyzstan' An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Ket қан [qan] 'begin'
Klallam qəmtəm [qəmtəm] 'iron'
Kutenai qaykiťwu [qajkitʼwu] 'nine'
Lishan Didan Urmi Dialect אקלא/aqla [aqlɑ] 'foot, leg'
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 قورباغه/qūrbaġe [quːrbɒɣe] 'frog' See Persian phonology
Quechua[12] qallu [qaʎu] 'tongue'
Sahaptin qu [qu] 'heavy'
Seediq Seediq [ˈseˈʔediq] 'Seediq'
Seereer-Siin[13] [example needed] — —
Shor қам [qɑm] 'shaman'
Somali qaab [qaːb] 'shape' See Somali phonology
St’át’imcets teq [təq] 'to touch'
Tajik қошуқ/qošuq [qɔʃuq] 'spoon'
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[14] qo'l [q̟oɫ] 'arm' Pre-uvular; sometimes realized as an affricate [q͡χ˖].[14]
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 [ǀ͡qʰɑ́ː] (help·info) 'to smoothe'

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. ^ 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. ^ Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
  13. ^ Mc Laughlin (2005), p. 203.
  14. ^ a b Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.

References

External links

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)
Categories