A voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "k" sound in "skip". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
A sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain , and some distinguish more than one variety. Many languages also have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain . Only a few languages lack a voiceless velar plosive, e.g. North Azerbaijani, Tahitian, and Mongolian.
Some languages have a voiceless pre-velar or post-palatal plosive, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as front as the prototypical palatal plosive. See for more information.
Conversely, some languages have a voiceless post-velar plosive, which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as back as the prototypical uvular plosive.
Features
upright=0.6|thumb|class=skin-invert-image|[[Sagittal section of a voiceless velar plosive]]
Features of a voiceless velar stop:
Occurrence
{|class="wikitable"
!colspan="2" | Language!!Word!!IPA!!Meaning!!Notes
|-
|colspan="2" | Abkhaz || /ak̇halak̇h' ||||'the city'|| See Abkhaz phonology
|-
|rowspan="2" |Adyghe || Shapsug || /k′ėt || || 'chicken' || rowspan="2" | Dialectal; corresponds to in other dialects.
|-
| Temirgoy || /pskėn || || 'to cough'
|-
|colspan="2" | Ahtna || gistaann || ||'six'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Aleut || || || 'cranberry bush'||
|-
| Arabic || Modern Standard || /kataba ||||'he wrote'|| See Arabic phonology
|-
| Armenian|| Eastern || / k'aġak'/k'aghak ||||'town'|| Contrasts with unaspirated form.
|-
|colspan="2" | Assamese || /kom ||||'less'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Assyrian|| ܟܬܒ̣ܐ || ]|| 'book' ||Used in most varieties, with the exception of the Urmia and Nochiya dialects<br /> where it corresponds to .
|-
|colspan="2" | Basque|| || || 'cat'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Bengali || /kom ||||'less'|| Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Bulgarian || /kak ||||'how'|| See Bulgarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Cantonese
|/
|
|'home'
| rowspan="2" |See Cantonese phonology
|-
|橋/桥/kìuh
|[kʰi:u˨˩]
|'bridge'
|-
|colspan="2" | Catalan || || || 'hearts' || See Catalan phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Chuvash||кукка||[ku'kːɑ]||'mother's brother'
|-
|colspan="2" | Czech || || || 'bone' || See Czech phonology
|-
| Danish || Standard || || || 'goose' || Usually transcribed in IPA with or . Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed in IPA with or . See Danish phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Dutch || || || 'king' || See Dutch phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | English || kiss || || 'kiss' || See English phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Esperanto || || || 'tale' || See Esperanto phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Estonian|| kõik || || 'all' || See Estonian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Filipino || || || 'lice' ||
|-
|colspan="2" | Finnish || || || 'cake' || See Finnish phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | French || || || 'office' || See French phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Georgian || /kva |||| 'stone'||
|-
|colspan="2" | German || || || 'cage'|| See Standard German phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Greek || || || 'monk'|| See Modern Greek phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Gujarati || /kaṃde |||| 'onion'|| See Gujarati phonology
|-
| rowspan="2" | Hebrew
|Modern|| || || 'violin'|| See Modern Hebrew phonology
|-
|Samaritan
| /
|
|'path'
|
|-
|colspan="2" | Hiligaynon || || || 'laugh' ||
|-
|colspan="2" | Hindustani || / || || 'work' || Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Hokkien
|/
|
|'song'
| rowspan="2" |See Hokkien phonology
|-
|區/区/khu
|
|'district'
|-
| Hmong
| White Hmong || / || || 'origin', 'beginning', or 'male name'
|-
|colspan="2" | Hungarian || || || 'then'|| See Hungarian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Ibaloi
|
|
|'rubber'
|
|-
|colspan="2" | Italian || || || 'house'|| See Italian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Japanese || / || || 'handbag'|| See Japanese phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Kagayanen || || || 'spirit'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Khmer || / || || 'Cambodia' || See Khmer phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Korean || 감자 / || || 'potato'|| See Korean phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Lakota || kimímela || || 'butterfly'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Luxembourgish || || || 'goat' || Less often voiced . It is usually transcribed in IPA as , and it contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed .|| || || 'when'|| See Romanian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Russian || /korotkij |||| 'short'|| See Russian phonology
|-
| colspan="2" | Serbo-Croatian || / || || 'bone' || See Serbo-Croatian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Slovak || || || 'bone'|| See Slovak phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Slovene
|
|
|'bone'
|Aspirated before close vowels. See Slovene phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Spanish || || || 'house'|| See Spanish phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Swedish || || || 'cow'|| See Swedish phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Sylheti || /kita ||||'what'||
|-
|colspan="2" | Tamil || கல் || || 'rock' || See Tamil phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Telugu || కాకి/kāki || || 'crow' ||Contrasts with aspirated form.
|-
| colspan="2" | Thai
|ไก่|/kị̀
|
|'chicken'
||Contrasts with an aspirated form.
|-
| colspan="2" |Toki Pona
|kulupu
|
|'group'
|Sometimes aspirated.
|-
|colspan="2" | Turkish || || || 'ear'|| See Turkish phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Ubykh || кауар/kawar
|
| 'slat'|| Found mostly in loanwords. See Ubykh phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Ukrainian ||/koleso |||| 'wheel'|| See Ukrainian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Vietnamese || || || 'orange'|| See Vietnamese phonology
|-
| colspan="2" |Welsh
|calon
|
|'heart'
|See Welsh phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | West Frisian|| || || 'calf' || See West Frisian phonology
|-
|colspan="2" | Yi|| / || || 'foolish'|| Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
|-
| Zapotec|| Tilquiapan || canza|| || 'walking'||
|}
See also
- Hard and soft C
- Index of phonetics articles