Voiced uvular stop

Voiced uvular stop
ɢ
IPA number	112
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɢ
Unicode (hex)	U+0262
X-SAMPA	G\
Kirshenbaum	G
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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)^[1] 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.

There is also the voiced pre-uvular stop^[2] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiced uvular stop, though not as front as the prototypical voiced velar stop. 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 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[3]	قات	[ɢɑːt]	'Khat'	Some dialects.[3] Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Arabic. See Arabic phonology
English	Australian[4]	gaudy	[ˈɡ̠oːdɪi̯]	'gaudy'	Pre-uvular; allophone of /ɡ/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/.[4] See Australian English phonology
Ket[5]		báŋquk	[baŋ˩˧ɢuk˧˩]	'cave in the ground'	Allophone of /q/ after /ŋ/.[5]
Kwak'wala		ǥilakas'la	[ɢilakasʔla]	'thank you'
Mongolian		Монгол	[mɔŋɢɔ̆ɮ]	'Mongolian'
Nivkh		ньыӈ ӷан	[ɲɤŋ ɢæn]	'our dog'	Allophone of /q/.
Persian		غذا	[ɢæˈzɒː]	'food'
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[6]	[^Rɢʶo]		'to stew'	Somewhat affricated; occurs only in a few words.[7] Corresponds to the cluster /Nɡ/ in Upper Xumi.[8]
Yanyuwa[9]		[ɡ̠uɟ̠uɭu]		'sacred'	Pre-uvular.[9] Contrasts plain and prenasalized versions

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

1. Vaux, Bert (1999). "A Note on Pharyngeal Features". Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics.
2. 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".
3. Watson (2002), p. 13.
4. Mannell, Cox & Harrington (2009).
5. Georg (2007), pp. 49, 67 and 77.
6. Chirkova & Chen (2013), p. 365.
7. Chirkova & Chen (2013), pp. 365–366.
8. Chirkova, Chen & Kocjančič Antolík (2013), pp. 383, 387.
9. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996), pp. 34-35.

Bibliography

• 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
• 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
• Georg, Stefan (2007), A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak), Global Oriental
• Mannell, R.; Cox, F.; Harrington, J. (2009), An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology, Macquarie University
• Watson, Janet (2002), The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic, New York: Oxford University Press