Voiced uvular plosive
ɢ
IPA Number	112
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɢ
Unicode (hex)	U+0262
X-SAMPA	G\
Braille
Image

The voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɢ⟩, a small capital version of the Latin letter g, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G\.

[ɢ] is a rare sound, even compared to other uvulars.^[1] Vaux proposes a phonological explanation: uvular consonants normally involve a neutral or a retracted tongue root, whereas voiced stops often involve an advanced tongue root: two articulations that cannot physically co-occur. This leads many languages of the world to have a voiced uvular fricative [ʁ] instead as the voiced counterpart of the voiceless uvular plosive. Examples are Inuit; several Turkic languages such as Uyghur and Yakut; several Northwest Caucasian languages such as Abkhaz; several Mongolic languages such as Mongolian and Kalmyk, as well as several Northeast Caucasian languages such as Ingush.

There is also the voiced pre-uvular plosive^[2] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular plosive, though not as front as the prototypical velar plosive. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ɢ̟⟩ (advanced ⟨ɢ⟩), ⟨ɡ̠⟩ or ⟨ɡ˗⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted ⟨ɡ⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are G\_+ and g_-, respectively.

Features

Features of the voiced 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 voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Notes

References

• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya (2013). "Xumi, Part 1: Lower Xumi, the Variety of the Lower and Middle Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 363–379. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000157. JSTOR 26347850. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-07.
• Chirkova, Katia; Chen, Yiya; Kocjančič Antolík, Tanja (2013). "Xumi, Part 2: Upper Xumi, the Variety of the Upper Reaches of the Shuiluo River" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 43 (3): 381–396. doi:10.1017/S0025100313000169. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-04-23.
• Georg, Stefan (2007). A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak). Global Oriental. ISBN 9781901903584.
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6
• Mannell, R.; Cox, F.; Harrington, J. (2009). "Phonetic (Narrow) Transcription of Australian English". An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology. Macquarie University. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25.
• Watson, Janet C. E. (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. The Phonology of the World's Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199257591.
• Vaux, Bert (1999). "A Note on Pharyngeal Features". Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics. 7.

External links

• List of languages with [ɢ] on PHOIBLE