Voiced velar implosive

A voiced velar implosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɠ ⟩. It is familiar to English speakers as the sound made when mimicking the 'gulping' of water.

Voiced velar implosive
ɠ
IPA number	166
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɠ
Unicode (hex)	U+0260
X-SAMPA	g_<
Braille
Image

Features

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
• It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
• It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is implosive (glottalic ingressive), which means it is produced by pulling air in by pumping the glottis downward. Since it is voiced, the glottis is not completely closed, but allows a pulmonic airstream to escape through it.

Occurrence

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Af Maay	qalang	[ɠalaŋ]	'pen'	Corresponds to /q/ in Standard Somali
Ega	[ɠà]		'count'
Fula	^[example needed]
Hindi	ॻअऊन/g̈aun	[ɠəuːn]	'cow' (transliteration of Sindhi ڳئون)	Used to transcribe implosives from Sindhi, Saraiki, Marwari and other languages.
Jamaican Patois	good	[ɠuːd]	'good'	Allophone of /ɡ/ in the onset of prominent syllables
Sindhi	ڳَـئُون/g̈aun		'cow'
Tera	qaandi	[ɠaːndi]	'hello'
Zulu	ukuza	[uˈɠuːza]	'to come'	Allophone of /k/

See also

• List of phonetics topics
• Voiceless velar implosive

Notes

1. Connell, Ahoua & Gibbon (2002:100)
2. Keer (1999:82)
3. "ॻ", Wiktionary, the free dictionary, 2024-05-27, retrieved 2025-10-26
4. Devonish & Harry (2004:456)
5. Tench (2007:228)