Voiceless uvular stop

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Voiceless uvular plosive
q
IPA number111
Audio sample
Encoding
Entity (decimal)q
Unicode (hex)U+0071
X-SAMPAq
Braille⠟ (braille pattern dots-12345)

A 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⟩.

Features

Sagittal section of a voiceless uvular plosive

Features of a 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 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 sounds.

Occurrence

Uvular

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
AbazaхъацӀа/qac’a[qat͡sʼa]'man'
Adygheатакъэ/atáqa[ataːqa]'rooster'
Aleut[1]ԟи́гаԟъ/qiighax̂[qiːɣaχ]'grass'
Arabic Modern Standard[2] قـط/qiṭṭ [qitˤː] 'cat' See Arabic phonology
Hejazi قِـمَّة/qimma [qɪmːa] 'peak' Allophone of /g/. See Hejazi Arabic phonology
Gulf[3]غـداً/qaden[qədæn]'tomorrow'Corresponds to /ɣ/ in other dialects.
Algerian
Assyrianܩܐ/qa[qa]'for'Often realized as a tense /k/ rather than uvular /q/.
Archiхъал/q"ál[qaːl]'human skin'
Avá-Canoeiro[4] [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.[4]
Bashkir ҡаҙ/qađ [qɑð] 'goose'
Bengali এলাক়া [ælɐqɐ] ˈarea' Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
Chechenкхоъ/qo’[qɔʔ]'three'
Chukchi Нычымйыӄэн/nyčymjyḳèn [nət͡ʃəmjəqen] 'bitter'
Crimean TatarКъырым/Qırım[qɯ.rɯm]'Crimea'
Dawsahak[qoq]'dry'
EnglishMulticultural London[5][6]cut[qʌt]'cut'Allophone of /k/ before non-high back vowels.[6][7]
Non-local Dublin[8]back[bɑq]'back'Allophone of /k/ after a retracted vowel for some speakers.[8]
Eyakg̣u:jih[qʊːtʃɪ̤]'wolf'
GermanChemnitz dialect[9]rau[qaɵ̯]'rough'In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [ʁ̥] and [ʀ̥].[9] Does not occur in the coda.[9]
Greenlandicilloqarpoq[iɬːoqɑppɔq]'he has a house'See Greenlandic phonology
HebrewBiblicalקול/qol[qol]'voice'See Biblical Hebrew phonology
MizrahiSee Mizrahi Hebrew
Shar'ab Temaniקול/qöl[qøːl]See Yemenite Hebrew
Hmong White Hmong𖬆𖬰𖬦𖬵 / qub[qu˦]'old', 'ancient', 'outdated' or 'archaic'
Hungariankorom[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].[10][11][12] See Hindustani phonology
Urdu بَرق / barq
Ibaloi kolpot 'cloud'
Inuktitutᐃᐦᐃᑉᕆᐅᖅᑐᖅ/ihipqiuqtuq’[ihipɢiuqtuq]'explore'See Inuit phonology
Iraqwqeet[qeːt]'break'
Kabardianкъэбэрдей/qabardey[qabardej]'Kabardian'
Kabyleⵜⴰⵇⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ[θɐqβæjlɪθ]'Kabyle language'May be voiced [ɢ].
taqbaylit
ثاقـبيليث
Kavalanqaqa[qaqa]'elder brother'
KazakhҚазақстан/Qazaqstan[qɑzɑqˈstɑn]'Kazakhstan'An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Ketқан/qan[qan]'begin'
Klallamqəmtəm[qəmtəm]'iron'
KurdishSorani قـوتابخانە/qutabxane[qutɑbxɑnə]'School'An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kurmanji Qalikdar[qɑlɯkdɑr]'crustacean'An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kutenaiqaykiťwu[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'
Maltoक़ान/qán[qa:n]'eye'Corresponds to /x/ in other North Dravidian languages. See Malto language#Phonology.
Nez Perceʔaw̓líwaaʔinpqawtaca[ʔawˀɪlwaːʔinpqawtat͡sa]'I go to scoop him up in the fire'
Nivkhтяқр̆/täqŕ[tʲaqr̥]'three'
OssetianIronДзæуджыхъæу/Zawjëqaw[ˈzə̹ʊ̯d͡ʒɪ̈qə̹ʊ̯]'Vladikavkaz'
PersianEarly New Persianقَـاشُق/qaşuq*/qaːʃuq/'spoon'May be allophonicly voiced to [ɢ] before a voiced stop. See Persian phonology.
Dari standard[qɑːˈʃʊq]
Tajik standardқошуқ/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[13]qallu[qaʎu]'tongue'
Sahaptinqu[qu]'heavy'
SeediqSeediq[ˈseˈʔediq]'Seediq'
Seereer-Siin[14]——
Shorқам/qam[qɑm]'shaman'
Somaliqaab[qaːb]'shape'See Somali phonology
St’át’imcetsteq[təq]'to touch'
Tlingitg̱agw[qɐ́kʷ]'tree spine'Tlingit contrasts six different uvular stops
Tatarкайдан/qaydan[qɑj.dɑn]'from where?'
Tsimshiangwildmḵa̱p'a[ɡʷildmqɑpʼa]'tobacco'
Turkmenak[ɑ:q]'white'Allophone of /k/ next to back vowels
Ubykhqhë[qʰɜ]'grave'One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghurئاق/aq[ɑq]'white'
Yup'ikmeq[məq]'fresh water'
YukaghirNorthernмаарх/márq[maːrq]'one'
Southernатахл/ataql[ataql]'two'
!Xóõǀqháá[ǀ͡qʰɑ́ː]'to smooth'

Pre-uvular

Voiceless post-velar or pre-uvular plosive
q᫈
k̠
Audio sample

There is also a voiceless post-velar or pre-uvular plosive[15] in some languages, which is more fronted compared to the prototypical uvular plosive, though further back than the prototypical velar plosive. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨q̟⟩ or ⟨q᫈⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨q⟩) or ⟨k̠⟩ (a retracted ⟨k⟩).

LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes
EnglishAustralian[16]caught[ḵʰoːt]'caught'Allophone of /k/ before /ʊ, oː, ɔ, oɪ, ʊə/.[16] See Australian English phonology
Uzbek[17]qol[q̟oɫ]'arm'Sometimes realized as an affricate [q͡χ˖].[17]
Western Neo-AramaicBakh'aPre-uvular, though in Ma'loula it is slightly more front (post-velar).
Ma'loula

See also

Notes

  1. Ladefoged (2005), p. 165.
  2. Watson (2002), p. 13.
  3. Qafisheh (1977), p. 266.
  4. Silva (2015), p. 39.
  5. Torgersen, Kerswill & Fox (2007).
  6. "John Wells's phonetic blog: k-backing". 27 July 2010. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  7. 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.
  8. "Glossary". Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  9. Khan & Weise (2013), p. 235.
  10. Shapiro, Michael C. (1989). A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 20. ISBN 978-81-208-0508-8.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. Ladefoged (2005), p. 149.
  14. Mc Laughlin (2005), p. 203.
  15. 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".
  16. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
  17. Sjoberg (1963), p. 11.

References