Uvulars areconsonantsarticulated with the back of thetongue against 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. Uvularaffricates can certainly be made but are rare: they occur in most Turkic languages, most Persian languages, most Arabic languages, in some southern High-German dialects, as well as a few African and Native American languages. (Ejective uvular affricates occur as realizations of uvular stops inKazakh,Bashkir,Arabic dialects,Lillooet, or as allophonic realizations of the ejective uvular fricative inGeorgian.) Uvular consonants are typically incompatible withadvanced tongue root,[1] and they often causeretraction of neighboring vowels.
The uvular consonants identified by theInternational Phonetic Alphabet are:
English has 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 consonants are believed to have existed in theProto-Oceanic language and are attested in the modernFormosan languages ofTaiwan, while auvular approximant may occur inArrernte. Uvular consonants are, however, found in many Middle-Eastern and African languages, most notablyArabic andSomali, and innative American languages. In parts of theCaucasus mountains and northwestern North America, nearly every language has uvular stops and fricatives. Twouvular R phonemes are found in various languages in northwestern Europe, includingFrench, someOccitan dialects, a majority ofGerman dialects, someDutch dialects, andDanish. Uvulars are almost unknown in theIndian subcontinent, but have been found inMalto[11] andKusunda natively.[12] However, several languages spoken in the northwest of the subcontinent have loaned uvular consonants fromArabic and evenPersian, especially languages that were spoken in places that were underMuslim rule for long periods of time, such asPunjabi.[13]
Thevoiceless uvular stop is transcribed as[q] in the IPA. 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 asQatar andIraq into 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 equivalent of[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 anallophone of another uvular consonant. InKazakh, thevoiced uvular stop is an allophone of thevoiced uvular fricative after 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 (Angan family), and for the variety ofKhmer spoken inBattambang province.
The Enqi dialect of theBai 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/.[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 Panhandle has ten uvular consonants, all of which are voiceless obstruents, while the extinct Ubykh language ofTurkey hastwenty. The Tlingit uvular consonants are:
| 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)' |
Infeaturalphonology, uvular consonants are most often considered to contrast withvelar consonants in terms of being [–high] and [+back]. Prototypical uvulars also appear to be [-ATR].[1]
Two variants can then be established. Sincepalatalized consonants are [-back], the appearance of palatalized uvulars in a few languages such asUbykh 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.
The uvulartrill[ʀ] is used in certaindialects (especially those associated with European capitals) ofFrench,German,Dutch,Portuguese,Danish,Swedish andNorwegian, as well as sometimes inModern Hebrew, for therhotic phoneme. In many of these it has a uvular fricative (eithervoiced[ʁ] orvoiceless[χ]) as anallophone when 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,Uyghur and 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]
InLakhota the uvular trill is an allophone of the voiced uvular fricative before/i/.
