The voiced uvular fricative is a type of
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
al sound, used in some
spoken language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
s. The symbol in the
International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , an inverted small uppercase letter , or in
broad transcription if
rhotic. This consonant is one of the several collectively called
guttural R when found in European languages.
The voiced uvular approximant is also found
interchangeably with the fricative, and may also be transcribed as . Because the IPA symbol stands for the uvular fricative, the
approximant may be specified by adding the
downtack: , though some writings use a superscript , which is not an official IPA practice.
For a voiced pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see
voiced velar fricative
The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ...
.
Features
Features of the voiced uvular fricative:
In many languages it is closer to an
approximant, however, and no language distinguishes the two at the uvular articulation.
Occurrence
In Western Europe, a
uvular trill pronunciation of rhotic consonants spread from northern
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
to several dialects and
registers of
Basque,
[''Grammar of Basque'']
page 30
José Ignacio Hualde, Jon Ortiz De Urbina, Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature.
History
The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in B ...
, 2003 Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
,
Danish,
Dutch,
German,
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: , Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the Ottoman E ...
,
Norwegian,
Occitan,
Portuguese,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
, some variants of
Low Saxon, and
Yiddish. However, not all of them remain a uvular trill today.
In
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
, it is usually a velar fricative (, ),
voiceless uvular fricative
The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , the Greek chi. The sound is represented by (ex with underdot) in A ...
, or glottal transition (, ), except in southern Brazil, where alveolar, velar and uvular trills as well as the voiced uvular fricative predominate. Because such uvular
rhotics
In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including , in the Latin script and , in the Cyrillic script. They a ...
often do not contrast with alveolar ones, IPA transcriptions may often use to represent them for ease of typesetting. For more information, see
guttural R.
note, "There is... a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."
It is also present in most
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...
, except for
Turkish
Turkish may refer to:
*a Turkic language spoken by the Turks
* of or about Turkey
** Turkish language
*** Turkish alphabet
** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
*** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey
*** Turkish communities and mi ...
, and in
Caucasian languages. It could also come in
É£.
See also
*
Index of phonetics articles
A
* Acoustic phonetics
* Active articulator
* Affricate
* Airstream mechanism
* Alexander John Ellis
* Alexander Melville Bell
* Alfred C. Gimson
* Allophone
* Alveolar approximant ()
* Alveolar click ()
* Alveolar consonant
* Alveolar ...
*
Guttural
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Voiced Uvular Fricative
Approximant-fricative consonants
Uvular consonants
Pulmonic consonants
Voiced oral consonants
Central consonants