Uvulars are consonants place of articulation, articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the Palatine uvula, uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stop consonant, stops, fricative consonant, fricatives, nasal consonant, nasals, trill consonant, trills, or approximant consonant, approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and the symbol for the voiced fricative is used instead. Uvular affricate consonant, affricates can 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 in Lillooet language, Lillooet, Kazakh language, Kazakh, or as allophonic realizations of the ejective uvular fricative in Georgian language, Georgian.) Uvular consonants are typically incompatible with advanced tongue root, and they often cause retracted vowel, retraction of neighboring vowels.

Uvular consonants in IPA

The uvular consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: , being/existence , - !χʼ , uvular ejective fricative , Tlingit language, Tlingit , x̱'aan , [χʼàːn] , 'fire' , - ! , voiced uvular implosive , Mam language, Mam , q'a , , fire , - !ʠ , voiceless uvular implosive , Q’anjob’al language, Q'anjob'al , ''Q'anjob'al'' , , 'Q'anjob'al language' , - ! , voiced uvular flap , Hiw language, Hiw , colspan=2 align=center, , 'hibiscus' , - ! , voiced uvular approximant , Danish language, Danish , rød , [ʁ̞œ̠ð̠] , red , - ! , voiced uvular lateral approximant , English language, English
(some American English, American speakers) , English orthography, ''wool'' , align=center, , 'wool'

Descriptions in different languages

English language, English has no uvular consonants (at least in most major dialects), and they are unknown in the indigenous languages of Australia and Pacific islands, the Pacific, though uvular consonants separate from velar consonants are believed to have existed in the Proto-Oceanic language and are attested in the modern Formosan languages of Taiwan. Uvular consonants are, however, found in many Middle-Eastern and African languages, most notably Arabic language, Arabic and Somali language, Somali, and in Indigenous languages of the Americas, native American languages. In parts of the Caucasus Mountains, Caucasus mountains and northwestern North America, nearly every language has uvular stops and fricatives. Two uvular R phonemes are found in various languages in northwestern Europe, including French language, French, some Occitan language, Occitan dialects, a majority of German dialects, some Dutch dialects, and Danish language, Danish. The voiceless uvular plosive, voiceless uvular stop is transcribed as in both the IPA and X-SAMPA. It is pronounced somewhat like the voiceless velar stop , but with the middle of the tongue further back on the velum (anatomy), velum, against or near the uvula. The most familiar use will doubtless be in the transliteration of Arabic place names such as ''Qatar'' and ''Iraq'' into English, though, since English lacks this sound, this is generally pronounced as , the most similar sound that occurs in English. , the uvular ejective consonant, ejective, is found in Ubykh language, Ubykh, Tlingit language, Tlingit, Cuzco Quechua language, Cusco Quechua, and some others. In Georgian, the existence of this phoneme is debatable, since the general realization of the letter "ყ" is . This is due to merging with and therefore being influenced by this merger and becoming . , the voiced uvular plosive, voiced equivalent of , is much rarer. It is like the voiced velar stop , but articulated in the same uvular position as . Few languages use this sound, but it is found in Persian language, Persian and in some Northeast Caucasian languages, notably Tabasaran language, Tabasaran, and Pacific Northwest, such as Kwakʼwala. It may also occur as an allophone of another uvular consonant. In Kazakh language, Kazakh, the voiced uvular stop is an allophone of the voiced uvular fricative after the velar nasal. The voiceless uvular fricative is similar to the voiceless velar fricative , except that it is articulated near the uvula. It is found in Georgian, and instead of in some dialects of German, Spanish dialects and varieties, Spanish, and varieties of Arabic, colloquial Arabic, as well as in some Dutch varieties and in standard Afrikaans. Uvular flaps have been reported for Kube language, Kube (Trans–New Guinea languages, Trans–New Guinea) and for the variety of Khmer language, Khmer spoken in Battambang province. The Enqi dialect of the Bai language has an unusually complete series of uvular consonants consisting of the stops /q/, /qʰ/ and /ɢ/, the fricatives /χ/ and /ʁ/, and the nasal /ɴ/. All of these contrast with a corresponding velar consonant of the same manner of articulation. The existence of the uvular nasal is especially unusual, even more so than the existence of the voiced stop. The Tlingit language of the Southeast Alaska, Alaska Panhandle has ten uvular consonants, all of which are voiceless obstruents: And the extinct Ubykh language of Turkey has Ubykh phonology, twenty.

Phonological representation

In Distinctive feature, featural phonology, uvular consonants are most often considered to contrast with velar consonants in terms of being [–high] and [+back]. Prototypical uvulars also appear to be [-ATR]. Two variants can then be established. Since palatalization (phonetics), palatalized consonants are [-back], the appearance of palatalized uvulars in a few languages such as Ubykh language, Ubykh is 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

The uvular Trill consonant, trill is used in certain dialects (especially those associated with European capitals) of French language, French, German language, German, Dutch language, Dutch, Portuguese language, Portuguese, Danish language, Danish, Swedish language, Swedish and Norwegian language, Norwegian, as well as sometimes in Modern Hebrew, for the Rhotic consonant, rhotic phoneme. In many of these it has a uvular fricative (either voiced uvular fricative, voiced or voiceless uvular fricative, voiceless ) as an allophone when it follows one of the voiceless stop consonant, stops , , or at the end of a word, as in the French example ''wikt:maître, maître'' , or even a uvular approximant. 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, including Inuktitut, Abkhaz language, Abkhaz, Uyghur language, Uyghur and some varieties of Arabic, have a voiced uvular fricative but do not treat it as a rhotic 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. In Lakota language, Lakhota the uvular trill is an allophone of the voiced uvular fricative before .

Notes

References