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Uvular consonant

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This article containsphonetic transcriptionsin theInternational Phonetic Alphabet(IPA).For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.For the distinction between[ ],/ /and ⟨⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Uvularsareconsonantsarticulatedwith the back of thetongueagainst or near theuvula,that is, further back in the mouth thanvelar consonants.Uvulars may bestops,fricatives,nasals,trills,orapproximants,though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and the symbol for the voiced fricative is used instead. Uvularaffricatescan certainly be made but are rare: they occur in some southern High-German dialects, as well as in a few African and Native American languages. (Ejective uvular affricates occur as realizations of uvular stops inLillooet,Kazakh,or as allophonic realizations of the ejective uvular fricative inGeorgian.) Uvular consonants are typically incompatible withadvanced tongue root,[1]and they often causeretractionof neighboring vowels.

Uvular consonants in IPA[edit]

The uvular consonants identified by theInternational Phonetic Alphabetare:

IPA Description Example
Language Orthography IPA Meaning
ɴ̥ voiceless uvular nasal Lamo [example needed]
ɴ voiced uvular nasal Bai(Luobenzhuo dialect)[2] Ta /nò [ɴɔ˦˨] 'I'
q voiceless uvular plosive Arabic قصّةٌqiṣṣatun [qisˤˈsˤɑtun] 'a story'
ɢ voiced uvular plosive Inuktitut utirama [ʔutiɢama] 'because I return'
q͡χ voiceless uvular affricate Kabardian кхъэ [q͡χa]ⓘ 'grave'
ɢ͡ʁ voiced uvular affricate Ekagi[3] gaati [ɢ͡ʁaːti] 'ten'
χ voiceless uvular fricative Peninsular Spanish enjuto [ẽ̞ɴˈχut̪o̞] 'skinny'
ʁ voiced uvular fricative French rester [ʁɛste] 'to stay'
ʁ̞ voiced uvular approximant Danish[4] rød [ʁ̞œ̠ð̠] 'red'
ʟ̠ voiced uvular lateral approximant English(someAmericanspeakers[5]) wool [wʊʟ̠] 'wool'
ɢ̆ voiced uvular flap Hiw[6] [βɔ̞ʀ̆] 'hibiscus'
ʀ̥ voiceless uvular trill French
(Belgian)[7] 		triste [t̪ʀ̥is̪t̪œ] 'sad'
ʀ voiced uvular trill French
(20th century Paris accent) 		Paris [paˈʀi] 'Paris'
ʀ̆ voiced uvular tap or flap Yiddish בריק [bʀ̆ɪk] 'bridge'
qʼ uvular ejective stop Quechua q'allu [ˈqʼaʎu] 'section, piece, slice, sauce'
q͡χʼ uvular ejective affricate Georgian ყოფაq'opa [q͡χʼɔpʰɑ] 'being/existence'
χʼ uvular ejective fricative Tlingit[8] x̱'aan [χʼàːn] 'fire'
ʛ voiced uvular implosive Konso[9] pogoota [poʛoːta] 'mandible'
ʛ̥(ʠ) voiceless uvular implosive Mam[10] q'ootj [ʛ̥oːtʰχ] 'dough'

Descriptions in different languages[edit]

Uvular consonants are produced near marker 9.

Englishhas no uvular consonants (at least in most major dialects), and they are largely unknown in the indigenous languages of Australia andthe Pacific,though uvular consonants separate fromvelar consonantsare believed to have existed in theProto-Oceanic languageand are attested in the modernFormosan languagesofTaiwan,while auvular approximantmay occur inArrernte.Uvular consonants are, however, found in many Middle-Eastern and African languages, most notablyArabicandSomali,and innative American languages.In parts of theCaucasus mountainsand northwestern North America, nearly every language has uvular stops and fricatives. Twouvular Rphonemes are found in various languages in northwestern Europe, includingFrench,someOccitandialects, a majority ofGerman dialects,someDutch dialects,andDanish.Uvulars are almost unknown in theIndian subcontinent,but have been found inMalto[11]andKusundanatively.[12]However, several languages spoken in the northwest of the subcontinent have loaned uvular consonants fromArabicand evenPersian,especially languages that were spoken in places that were underMuslim rulefor long periods of time, such asPunjabi.[13]

Thevoiceless uvular stopis transcribed as[q]in both the IPA andX-SAMPA.It is pronounced somewhat like thevoiceless velar stop[k],but with the middle of the tongue further back on thevelum,against or near the uvula. The most familiar use will doubtless be in the transliteration of Arabic place names such asQatarandIraqinto English, though, since English lacks this sound, this is generally pronounced as[k],the most similar sound that occurs in English.

[qʼ],the uvularejective,is found inUbykh,Tlingit,Cusco Quechua,and some others. In Georgian, the existence of this phoneme is debatable, since the general realization of the letter "ყ" is/χʼ/.This is due to/qʰ/merging with/χ/and therefore/qʼ/being influenced by this merger and becoming/χʼ/.

[ɢ],thevoiced equivalentof[q],is much rarer. It is like thevoiced velar stop[ɡ],but articulated in the same uvular position as[q].Few languages use this sound, but it is found inIranian Persian(and allophonicly in other varieties of Persian) and in someNortheast Caucasian languages,notablyTabasaran,andPacific Northwest,such asKwakʼwala.It may also occur as anallophoneof another uvular consonant. InKazakh,thevoiced uvular stopis an allophone of thevoiced uvular fricativeafter thevelar nasal.

Thevoiceless uvular fricative[χ]is similar to thevoiceless velar fricative[x],except that it is articulated near the uvula. It is found in Georgian, and instead of[x]in some dialects of German,Spanish,andcolloquial Arabic,as well as in some Dutch varieties and in standardAfrikaans.

Uvular flaps have been reported forKube(Trans–New Guinea),Hamtai(Anganfamily), and for the variety ofKhmerspoken inBattambang province.

The Enqi dialect of theBai languagehas an unusually complete series of uvular consonants consisting of the stops /q/, /qʰ/ and /ɢ/, the fricatives /χ/ and /ʁ/, and the nasal /ɴ/.[14]All of these contrast with a corresponding velar consonant of the same manner of articulation.[14]The existence of the uvular nasal is especially unusual, even more so than the existence of the voiced stop.

The Tlingit language of theAlaska Panhandlehas ten uvular consonants, all of which are voiceless obstruents:

Uvulars in Tlingit[15]
Description Orthographic IPA Gloss
tenuis stop g̱ákw qákʷ 'tree spine'
aspirated stop ḵákw qʰákʷ 'basket'
ejective stop ḵʼákw qʼakʷ 'screech owl'
labialized tenuis stop náaḵw náaqʷ 'octopus'
labialized aspirated stop ḵwáan qʷʰáan 'people, tribe'
labialized ejective stop ḵʼwátl qʷʼátɬ 'cooking pot'
voiceless fricative x̱aakw χaakʷ 'fingernail'
ejective fricative x̱ʼáakw χʼáakʷ 'freshwater sockeye salmon'
labialized voiceless fricative x̱wastáa χʷastáa 'canvas, denim'
labialized ejective fricative x̱wʼáalʼ χʷʼáaɬʼ 'down (feathers)'

And the extinct Ubykh language ofTurkeyhastwenty.

Phonological representation[edit]

Infeaturalphonology,uvular consonants are most often considered to contrast withvelar consonantsin terms of being [–high] and [+back]. Prototypical uvulars also appear to be [-ATR].[1]

Two variants can then be established. Sincepalatalizedconsonants are [-back], the appearance of palatalized uvulars in a few languages such asUbykhis difficult to account for. According to Vaux (1999), they possibly hold the features [+high], [-back], [-ATR], the last being the distinguishing feature from a palatalized velar consonant.

Uvular rhotics[edit]

The uvulartrill[ʀ]is used in certaindialects(especially those associated with European capitals) ofFrench,German,Dutch,Portuguese,Danish,SwedishandNorwegian,as well as sometimes inModern Hebrew,for therhoticphoneme. In many of these it has a uvular fricative (eithervoiced[ʁ]orvoiceless[χ]) as anallophonewhen it follows one of thevoicelessstops/p/,/t/,or/k/at the end of a word, as in the French examplemaître[mɛtχ],or even auvular approximant[ʁ̞].

As with most trills, uvular trills are often reduced to a single contact, especially between vowels.

Unlike other uvular consonants, the uvular trill is articulated without a retraction of the tongue, and therefore doesn't lower neighboring high vowels the way uvular stops commonly do.

Several other languages, includingInuktitut,Abkhaz,Uyghurand somevarieties of Arabic,have a voiced uvular fricative but do not treat it as arhotic consonant.However, Modern Hebrew and some modern varieties of Arabic also both have at least one uvular fricative that is considered non-rhotic, and one that is considered rhotic.[citation needed]

InLakhotathe uvular trill is an allophone of the voiced uvular fricative before/i/.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^abVaux, Bert (1999). "A Note on Pharyngeal Features".Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics.
  2. ^Allen, Bryan (August 2007)."Bai Dialect Survey".SIL Electronic Survey Report 2007-012.CiteSeerX10.1.1.692.4221.
  3. ^Staroverov, Peter; Tebay, Soren (2019). "Posterior Affricate in Mee and Consonant-Vowel Place Interactions".Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Meeting on Phonology.LSA.
  4. ^Basbøll (2005:66)
  5. ^Cruttenden (2014),p. 221.
  6. ^François (2005),p. 44.
  7. ^Demolin (2001),pp. 65, 67–68, 70–71.
  8. ^"Phoible 2.0 -".
  9. ^Orkaydo (2013).
  10. ^England, Nora C. (1983).A grammar of Mam, a Mayan language.Austin: University of Texas Press.ISBN0292729278.OCLC748935484.
  11. ^Steever, Sanford B. (2015).The Dravidian Languages.Routledge.ISBN978-1-136-91164-4.
  12. ^Watters (2005).
  13. ^Menon, A.S.; Kusuman, K.K. (1990).A Panorama of Indian Culture: Professor A. Sreedhara Menon Felicitation Volume.Mittal Publications. p. 87.ISBN9788170992141.Archivedfrom the original on 9 February 2018.Retrieved13 January2017.
  14. ^abFeng, Wang (2006)."Comparison of Languages in Contact: The Distillation Method and the Case of Bai"(PDF).Language and Linguistics Monograph Series B. Frontiers in Linguistics III.
  15. ^Maddieson, Ian; Smith, Caroline L.; Bessell, Nicola (Summer 2001). "Aspects of the Phonetics of Tlingit".Anthropological Linguistics.43:140–141.JSTOR30028779.

References[edit]

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