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 , 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 .
Features
upright=0.6|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|[[Sagittal section of a voiceless uvular plosive]]
Features of a voiceless uvular stop:
Occurrence
Uvular
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
|colspan=2| Abaza || / || || 'man' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Adyghe || / || || 'rooster' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Aleut || / || || 'grass' ||
|-
| rowspan="4" |Arabic
|Modern Standard
|/
|
|'cat'
|See Arabic phonology
|-
|Hejazi
|/
|
|'peak'
|Allophone of . See Hejazi Arabic phonology
|-
| Gulf || rowspan="2" | / || rowspan="2" | || rowspan="2" | 'tomorrow' || rowspan="2" | Corresponds to in other dialects.
|-
| Algerian
|-
|colspan=2| Assyrian || / || || 'for' || Often realized as a tense /k/ rather than uvular /q/.
|-
|colspan=2| Archi || / || || 'human skin' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Avá-Canoeiro
|colspan=2 align=center|
|'this'
|Possible realisation of . In the speech of people aged 40 to 80 years, the consonant is in free variation with , and in post-tonic or primarily or secondarily stressed syllables.
|-
| colspan="2" | Bashkir
| /
|
| 'goose'
|
|-
| colspan="2" |Bengali
|
|
|ˈarea'
|Only occurs in loanwords. See Bengali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Chechen || / || || 'three' ||
|-
| colspan="2" |Chukchi
|
|[nət͡ʃəmjəqen]
|'bitter' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Crimean Tatar || / || || 'Crimea' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Dawsahak ||colspan=2 align=center| || 'dry' ||
|-
| rowspan="2" | English || Multicultural London || cut || || 'cut' || Allophone of before non-high back vowels.
|-
| Non-local Dublin || back || || 'back' || Allophone of after a retracted vowel for some speakers.
|-
|Urdu
|/
|-
| colspan="2" |Ibaloi
|
|
|'cloud'
|
|-
|colspan=2| Inuktitut || / || || 'explore' || See Inuit phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Iraqw || || || 'break' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Kabardian || / || || 'Kabardian' ||
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" | Kabyle || || rowspan="3" | || rowspan="3" | 'Kabyle language' || rowspan="3" | May be voiced .
|-
|
|-
|
|-
|colspan=2| Kavalan || || || 'elder brother' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Kazakh || / || || 'Kazakhstan' || An allophone of before back vowels
|-
|colspan=2| Ket || || || 'begin' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Klallam || || || 'iron' ||
|-
|rowspan=2| Kurdish || Sorani
|| / || || 'School' || An allophone of before back vowels
|-
| Kurmanji
|| || || 'crustacean' || An allophone of before back vowels
|-
|colspan=2| Kutenai || || || 'nine' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Kyrgyz
|| / || || 'Kyrgyzstan' || An allophone of before back vowels
|-
|Lishan Didan
|Urmi Dialect
|/
|
|'foot, leg'
|
|-
|Maltese
|Archaic Cottonera Dialect
|
|
|'cat'
|
|-
|colspan=2| Malto || क़ान/qán|| || 'eye' || Corresponds to /x/ in other North Dravidian languages. See Malto language#Phonology.
|-
| colspan="2" | Nez Perce|| || || 'I go to scoop him up in the fire' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Nivkh || / || || 'three' ||
|-
|Ossetian ||Iron ||/ || ||'Vladikavkaz' ||
|-
|rowspan=4| Persian || Early New Persian || rowspan=2 | / || || rowspan=3 | 'spoon' || rowspan=3 | May be allophonicly voiced to [ɢ] before a voiced stop. See Persian phonology.
|-
| Dari standard ||
|-
| Tajik standard || / ||
|-
| Some Iranian speakers || / || || '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.
|-
|colspan=2| Quechua || || || 'tongue' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Sahaptin || qu || || 'heavy' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Seediq || || || 'Seediq' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Seereer-Siin || ||— ||— ||
|-
|colspan=2| Shor || || || 'shaman' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Somali || || || 'shape' || See Somali phonology
|-
|colspan=2| St’át’imcets || || || 'to touch' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Tlingit || || || 'tree spine' || Tlingit contrasts six different uvular stops
|-
|colspan=2| Tatar || / || || 'from where?' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Tsimshian || || || 'tobacco' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Turkmen || || || 'white' || Allophone of /k/ next to back vowels
|-
|colspan=2| Ubykh ||qhë|| || 'grave' || One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Uyghur || / || || 'white' ||
|-
|colspan=2| Yup'ik || || || 'fresh water' ||
|-
|rowspan=2| Yukaghir || Northern || / || || 'one' ||
|-
| Southern || / || || 'two' ||
|-
|colspan=2| !Xóõ || || || 'to smooth' ||
|}
Pre-uvular
There is also a voiceless post-velar or pre-uvular plosive 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 advanced ) or (a retracted ).
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan=2| Language !! Word !! IPA !! Meaning !! Notes
|-
| English || Australian || caught || || 'caught' || Pre-uvular; allophone of before . See Australian English phonology
|-
|colspan=2| Uzbek || || || 'arm' || Pre-uvular; sometimes realized as an affricate .
|-
| rowspan="2" | Western Neo-Aramaic || Bakh'a || || || || rowspan="2" | Pre-uvular, though in Ma'loula it is slightly more front.
|-
| Ma'loula || || ||
|-
|}
See also
- Guttural
- Index of phonetics articles
- Qoph
- Voiced uvular stop