A voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "k" sound in "skip". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
A sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain , and some distinguish more than one variety. Many languages also have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain . Only a few languages lack a voiceless velar plosive, e.g. North Azerbaijani, Tahitian, and Mongolian.
Some languages have a voiceless pre-velar or post-palatal plosive, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as front as the prototypical palatal plosive. See for more information.
Conversely, some languages have a voiceless post-velar plosive,Instead of "post-velar", it can be called "retracted velar", "backed velar", "pre-uvular", "advanced uvular" or "fronted uvular". which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as back as the prototypical uvular plosive.
Features
Features of a voiceless velar stop:
Occurrence LanguageWordIPAMeaningNotes Abkhaz /ak̇halak̇h' 'the city' See Abkhaz phonologyAdyghe Shapsug /k′ėt 'chicken' Dialectal; corresponds to in other dialects. Temirgoy /pskėn 'to cough' Ahtna gistaann 'six' Aleut 'cranberry bush' Arabic Modern Standard /kataba 'he wrote' See Arabic phonology Armenian Eastern / k'aġak'/k'aghak 'town' Contrasts with unaspirated form. Assamese /kom 'less' Assyrian ܟܬܒ̣ܐ ] 'book' Used in most varieties, with the exception of the Urmia and Nochiya dialects where it corresponds to . Basque 'cat' Bengali /kom 'less' Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology Bulgarian /kak 'how' See Bulgarian phonologyCantonese/'home'See Cantonese phonology橋/桥/kìuh[kʰi:u˨˩]'bridge' Catalan 'hearts' See Catalan phonologyChuvashкукка[ku'kːɑ]'mother's brother' Czech 'bone' See Czech phonology Danish Standard 'goose' Usually transcribed in IPA with or . Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed in IPA with or . See Danish phonology Dutch 'king' See Dutch phonology English kiss 'kiss' See English phonology Esperanto 'tale' See Esperanto phonology Estonian kõik 'all' See Estonian phonology Filipino 'lice' Finnish 'cake' See Finnish phonology French 'office' See French phonology Georgian /kva 'stone' German 'cage' See Standard German phonology Greek 'monk' See Modern Greek phonology Gujarati /kaṃde 'onion' See Gujarati phonology Hebrew Modern 'violin' See Modern Hebrew phonologySamaritan / 'path' Hiligaynon 'laugh' Hindustani / 'work' Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonologyHokkien/'song'See Hokkien phonology區/区/khu'district' Hmong White Hmong / 'origin', 'beginning', or 'male name' Hungarian 'then' See Hungarian phonologyIbaloi'rubber' Italian 'house' See Italian phonology Japanese / 'handbag' See Japanese phonology Kagayanen 'spirit' Khmer / 'Cambodia' See Khmer phonology Korean 감자 / 'potato' See Korean phonology Lakota kimímela 'butterfly' Luxembourgish 'goat' Less often voiced . It is usually transcribed in IPA as , and it contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed . See Luxembourgish phonology Macedonian кој 'who' See Macedonian phonology Marathi 'armour' Contrasts with aspirated form. See Marathi phonology Malay 'leg' Unreleased in syllable codas in some words, See Malay phonology Malayalam കഥ/katha 'story' See Malayalam phonologyMandarin/'high'See Mandarin phonology/[kʰɑʊ˨˩˦]'roast' (v.) Nepali 'banana' Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology Norwegian 'cake' See Norwegian phonology Odia /kāma 'work' Contrasts with aspirated form. Pashto /kal 'year' Persianکارد/kārd'knife' Polish 'beech tree' See Polish phonology Portuguese 'body' See Portuguese phonology Punjabi /کر / kar 'do' Contrasts with aspirated form. RomanianDEX Online: 'when' See Romanian phonology Russian /korotkij 'short' See Russian phonology Serbo-Croatian / 'bone' See Serbo-Croatian phonology Slovak 'bone' See Slovak phonologySlovene'bone'Aspirated before close vowels. See Slovene phonology Spanish 'house' See Spanish phonology Swedish 'cow' See Swedish phonology Sylheti /kita 'what' Tamil கல் 'rock' See Tamil phonology Telugu కాకి/kāki 'crow' Contrasts with aspirated form. Thai/kị̀'chicken'Contrasts with an aspirated form.Toki Ponakulupu'group'Sometimes aspirated. Turkish 'ear' See Turkish phonology Ubykh кауар/kawar 'slat' Found mostly in loanwords. See Ubykh phonology Ukrainian /koleso 'wheel' See Ukrainian phonology Vietnamese 'orange' See Vietnamese phonologyWelshcalon'heart'See Welsh phonology West Frisian 'calf' See West Frisian phonology Yi / 'foolish' Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms. Zapotec Tilquiapan canza 'walking'
See also Hard and soft C Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links