Voiceless uvular plosive

The voiceless uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive [k], except that the tongue makes contact not on the soft palate but on the uvula. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨q⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is q.

Voiceless uvular plosive
q
IPA number	111
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	q
Unicode (hex)	U+0071
X-SAMPA	q
Braille
Image

There is also the voiceless pre-uvular plosive^[1] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular consonant, though not as front as the prototypical velar consonant. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨q̟⟩ or ⟨q˖⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨q⟩) or ⟨k̠⟩ (retracted ⟨k⟩). The equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are q_+ and k_-, respectively.

Features

Features of the voiceless 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 voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• 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.
• Its 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

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		хъацӀа/qac’a	[qat͡sʼa]	'man'
Adyghe		атакъэ/atáqa	[ataːqa]ⓘ	'rooster'
Aleut[2]		ҟи́гаҟъ/qiighax̂	[qiːɣaχ]	'grass'
Arabic	Modern Standard[3]	قـط/qiṭṭ	[qitˤː]ⓘ	'cat'	See Arabic phonology
	Hejazi	قِـمَّة/qimma	[qɪmːa]	'peak'	Allophone of /g/. See Hejazi Arabic phonology
	Gulf[4]	غـداً/qaden	[qədæn]	'tomorrow'	Corresponds to /ɣ/ in other dialects.
	Algerian
Assyrian		ܩܐ/qa	[qa]	'for'	Often realized as a tense /k/[vague] rather than uvular /q/.
Archi		хъал/q"ál	[qaːl]	'human skin'
Avá-Canoeiro[5]		[ˈqɔːtõ]		'this'	Possible realisation of /k/. In the speech of people aged 40 to 80 years, the consonant is in free variation with [qˤ], [qʰ] and [k] in post-tonic or primarily or secondarily stressed syllables.[5]
Bashkir		ҡаҙ/qađ	[qɑð]ⓘ	'goose'
Chechen		кхоъ/qo’	[qɔʔ]	'three'
Chukchi		Нычымйыӄэн/nyčymjyḳèn	[nət͡ʃəmjəqen]	'bitter'
Crimean Tatar		Къырым/Qırım	[qɯ.rɯm]	'Crimea'
Dawsahak		[qoq]		'dry'
English	Australian[6]	caught	[ḵʰoːt]	'caught'	Pre-uvular; allophone of /k/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/.[6] See Australian English phonology
	Multicultural London[7][8]	cut	[qʌt]	'cut'	Allophone of /k/ before non-high back vowels.[8][9]
	Non-local Dublin[10]	back	[bɑq]	'back'	Allophone of /k/ after a retracted vowel for some speakers.[10]
Eyak		g̣u:jih	[qʊːtʃɪ̤]	'wolf'
German	Chemnitz dialect[11]	Rock	[qɔkʰ]	'skirt'	In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [χ] and [ʀ̥].[11] Does not occur in the coda.[11]
Greenlandic		illoqarpoq	[iɬːoqɑppɔq]	'he has a house'	See Greenlandic phonology
Hebrew	Biblical	קול/qol	[qol]	'voice'	See Biblical Hebrew phonology
	Mizrahi				See Mizrahi Hebrew
	Shar'ab Temani	קול/qöl	[qøːl]		See Yemenite Hebrew
Hmong	White Hmong	𖬆𖬰𖬦𖬵 / qub	[qu˦]	'old', 'ancient', 'outdated' or 'archaic'
Hungarian		korom	[qorom]	'soot'	Possible allophone of /k/ before back vowels. See Hungarian phonology
Hindustani	Hindi	बर्क़/barq	[bərq]	'lightning'	Mostly in Hindi–Urdu loanwords from Arabic, pronounced mainly in Urdu and by educated Hindi speakers, with rural Hindi speakers often pronouncing it as a [k]. See Hindustani phonology[12][13][14]
	Urdu	بَرق/barq
Ibaloi		kolpot		'cloud'
Inuktitut		ᐃᐦᐃᑉᕆᐅᖅᑐᖅ/ihipqiuqtuq’	[ihipɢiuqtuq]	'explore'	See Inuit phonology
Iraqw		qeet	[qeːt]	'break'
Kabardian		къэбэрдей/qabardey	[qabardej]ⓘ	'Kabardian'
Kabyle		ⵜⴰⵇⴲⴰⵢⵍⵉⵜ	[θɐqβæjlɪθ]ⓘ	'Kabyle language'	May be voiced [ɢ].
		taqbaylit
		ثاقـبيليث
Kavalan		qaqa	[qaqa]	'elder brother'
Kazakh		Қазақстан/Qazaqstan	[qɑzɑqˈstɑn]	'Kazakhstan'	An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Ket		қан/qan	[qan]	'begin'
Klallam		qəmtəm	[qəmtəm]	'iron'
Kurdish	Sorani	قـوتابخانە/qutabxane	[qutɑbxɑnə]	'School'	An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
	Kurmanji	Qalikdar	[qɑlɯkdɑr]	'crustacean'	An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Kutenai		qaykiťwu	[qajkitʼwu]	'nine'
Kyrgyz		Кыргызстан/Qırğızstan	[qɯrʁɯsˈstɑn]	'Kyrgyzstan'	An allophone of /k/ before back vowels
Lishan Didan	Urmi Dialect	אקלא/aqla	[aqlɑ]	'foot, leg'
Maltese	Archaic Cottonera Dialect	qattus	[qɐˈtːuːs]	'cat'
Malto		क़ान/qán	[qa:n]	'eye'	Corresponds to /x/ in other North Dravidian languages.
Nez Perce		ʔaw̓líwaaʔinpqawtaca	[ʔawˀɪlwaːʔinpqawtat͡sa]	'I go to scoop him up in the fire'
Nivkh		тяқр̆/täqŕ	[tʲaqr̥]	'three'
Ossetian	Iron	Дзæуджыхъæу/Zawjëqaw	[ˈzə̹ʊ̯d͡ʒɪ̈qə̹ʊ̯]	'Vladikavkaz'
Persian	Early New Persian	قَـاشُق/qaşuq	*/qaːʃuq/	'spoon'	May be allophonicly voiced to [ɢ] before a voiced stop. See Persian phonology.
	Dari standard		[qɑːˈʃʊq]
	Tajik standard	қошуқ/qoşuq	[qɔʃuq]
	Some Iranian speakers	قـورباغه/qurbağe	[qurbɒɣe]	'frog'	In Western Iranian dialects /q/ and /ɣ/ have merged into /ɢ/. Though some dialects in eastern Iran may preserve the distinction in some words. See Persian phonology.
Quechua[15]		qallu	[qaʎu]	'tongue'
Sahaptin		qu	[qu]	'heavy'
Seediq		Seediq	[ˈseˈʔediq]	'Seediq'
Seereer-Siin[16]		[example needed]	—	—
Shor		қам/qam	[qɑm]	'shaman'
Somali		qaab	[qaːb]	'shape'	See Somali phonology
St’át’imcets		teq	[təq]	'to touch'
Tlingit		ghagw	[qɐ́kʷ]	'tree spine'	Tlingit contrasts six different uvular stops
Tsimshian		gwildmḵa̱p'a	[ɡʷildmqɑpʼa]	'tobacco'
Turkmen		ak	[ɑ:q]	'white'	Allophone of /k/ next to back vowels
Ubykh		qhë	[qʰɜ]	'grave'	One of ten distinct uvular stop phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur		ئاق/aq	[ɑq]	'white'
Uzbek[17]		qol	[q̟oɫ]	'arm'	Pre-uvular; sometimes realized as an affricate [q͡χ˖].[17]
Western Neo-Aramaic	Bakh'a	[example needed]			Pre-uvular, though in Ma'loula it is slightly more front.
	Ma'loula	[example needed]
Yup'ik		meq	[məq]	'fresh water'
Yukaghir	Northern	маарх/márq	[maːrq]	'one'
	Southern	атахл/ataql	[ataql]	'two'
!Xóõ		ǀqháá	[ǀ͡qʰɑ́ː]ⓘ	'to smooth'

See also

• Guttural
• Index of phonetics articles
• Qoph
• ق
• Voiced uvular stop