Voiced velar implosive

"Velar implosive" redirects here. For the voiceless consonant, see Voiceless velar implosive.

The voiced velar implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɠ ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g_<. It is familiar to English speakers as the sound made when mimicking the 'gulping' of water.

Voiced velar implosive
ɠ
IPA number	166
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɠ
Unicode (hex)	U+0260
X-SAMPA	g_<
Braille
Image

Features

• 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 velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• 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 implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. Since it is voiced, the glottis is not completely closed, but allows a pulmonic airstream to escape through it.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Af Maay		qalang	[ɠalaŋ]	'pen'	Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Somali
Ega[1]		[ɠà]		'count'
Fula[2]		[example needed]
Jamaican Patois[3]		good	[ɠuːd]	'good'	Allophone of /ɡ/ in the onset of prominent syllables
Sindhi		ڳَـئُون/g̈aun	[ɠəuːn]ⓘ	'cow'
Tera[4]		qaandi	[ɠaːndi]	'hello'
Zulu		ukuza	[uˈɠuːza]	'to come'	Allophone of /k/

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Voiceless velar implosive