Voiced uvular stop

For technical reasons, "g (IPA)" redirects here. For the consonant written as [ɡ], see Voiced velar stop.

Voiced uvular stop
ɢ
IPA Number	112
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɢ
Unicode (hex)	U+0262
X-SAMPA	G\
Braille
Image

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

[ɢ] is a rare sound, even compared to other uvulars. Vaux (1999) proposes a phonological explanation: uvular consonants normally involve a neutral or a retracted tongue root, whereas voiced stops often involve 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 stop. Examples are Inuit; several Turkic languages such as Uyghur and Yakut; several Northwest Caucasian languages such as Abkhaz; and several Northeast Caucasian languages such as Ingush.

For a voiced pre-uvular stop (also called post-velar), see voiced velar stop.

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 stop.
• 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 lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Arabic	Sudanese	بقرة	[bɑɢɑrɑ]	'cow'	Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology
	Yemeni	قات	<phonos file="Qgat.ogg">[ɢɑːt]</phonos>	'Khat'	Some dialects. Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology
Ket		báŋquk	[baŋ˩˧ɢuk˧˩]	'cave in the ground'	Allophone of /q/ after /ŋ/.
Kwak'wala		ǥilakas'la	[ɢilakasʔla]	'thank you'
Mongolian		Монгол	[mɔŋɢɔ̆ɮ]	'Mongolian'
Nivkh		ньыӈ ӷан	[ɲɤŋ ɢæn]	'our dog'	Allophone of /q/.
Persian		غذا	<phonos file="Fa-غذا.ogg">[ɢæˈzɒː]</phonos>	'food'	Allophone of /ɣ/. See Persian phonology
Shor		қарға	[qɑrˈɢɑ]	'crow'	Allophone of /g/.
Somali		Muqdisho	[muɢdiʃɔ]	'Mogadishu'	Allophone of /q/. See Somali phonology
Tabasaran		дугу	[d̪uɢu]	'he (ergative)'
Tsakhur		?	[ɢajɛ]	'stone'
!Xóõ		?	[nǀɢɑɑ̃]	'to be spread out'
Xumi	Lower	[Rɢʶo]		'to stew'	Somewhat affricated; occurs only in a few words. Corresponds to the cluster /Nɡ/ in Upper Xumi.

See also

• Index of phonetics articles