SafekipediaUvular consonant
Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience
Uvulars are special sounds made when the back of the tongue touches or comes close to a small part of the mouth called the uvula. This place is further back than where we usually make velar sounds. Uvular sounds can be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants. While there isn’t a special symbol for the approximant sound, the symbol for a voiced fricative is often used instead.
Uvular affricates, which are a mix of stops and fricatives, are rare but found in many Turkic languages, Persian languages, Arabic languages, some southern High-German dialects, and a few African and Native American languages. For example, in Kazakh, Bashkir, Arabic dialects, and Lillooet, ejective uvular affricates can appear. They sometimes also show up in Georgian as a variation of the ejective uvular fricative. Uvular consonants usually don’t work well with advanced tongue root positions and often make nearby vowel sounds shift backward.
Uvular consonants in IPA
The uvular consonants are sounds made by using the back of the tongue near a small part of the mouth called the uvula. These sounds are identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Descriptions in different languages
English does not have uvular consonants, and they are also not common in the languages of Australia and the Pacific. However, they can be found in many Middle-Eastern and African languages, such as Arabic and Somali, and in some Native American languages. In parts of the Caucasus mountains and northwestern North America, many languages include uvular stops and fricatives. Some European languages, like French, also use uvular sounds.
The voiceless uvular stop is written as [q] and sounds a bit like the English [k], but it is made further back in the mouth. You might hear it in names like "Qatar" or "Iraq," though English usually says [k] instead. Some languages have special uvular sounds, like the Tlingit language in Alaska, which has ten uvular consonants.
| 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)' |
Phonological representation
In featural phonology, uvular consonants are often compared with velar consonants. They are seen as having certain special qualities, such as being lower and more toward the back of the mouth.
Some languages, like Ubykh, have special versions of uvular consonants that are hard to explain. One idea is that these versions have their own unique qualities that make them different from other similar sounds.
Uvular rhotics
The uvular trill is used in some dialects of French, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian. It is also sometimes found in Modern Hebrew. This sound can change depending on what comes before it in a word.
Like most trills, the uvular trill is often made with just one quick movement, especially between vowels. Unlike other uvular sounds, the uvular trill is made without pulling the tongue back, so it does not change the sound of nearby high vowels.
Related articles
This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Uvular consonant, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.