Voiceless uvular affricate

A voiceless uvular affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are ⟨q͡χ⟩ and ⟨q͜χ⟩. The tie bar may be omitted, yielding ⟨⟩.

Voiceless uvular affricate
qꭓ
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
X-SAMPAq_X

Features

Features of a voiceless uvular affricate:

  • Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
  • Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
  • Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
  • 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.
  • Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air only with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Uvular

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Alemannic Most High and Highest Alemannic dialects Gschänk [ˈkʃæɴq͡χ] 'present' Velar [k͡x] in other dialects.
Adyghe Natukhai кхъэ 'grave' Dialectal. Corresponds to [qʰ] in other dialects.
Avar хъарахъ/څ‍ﺎراڅ 'bush' Contrasts with the ejective [q͡χʼː].
Chechen кхаара/qaara/قآآرآ [q͡χaʔara] 'Wednesday'
Chukchi ӈирэӄ/ňirè [ŋireq͡χ] 'two' Allophone of [q].
English Scouse clock [kl̥ɒq͡χ] 'clock' Possible word-final realization of /k/.
Georgian Some dialects აფაზეთი [apʰq͡χazetʰi] 'Abkhazia' Only after bilabial stops. Otherwise [x].
Kabardian кхъэ/ٯّ‍‍ە 'grave'
Persian Some dialects ﻔﻞ [q͡χofl] 'lock' Fortition of word-initial /q/.
Rendille munkhet [munq͡χet] 'forgotten' Only after nasal consonants. Otherwise [x].

Pre-uvular

There is also a voiceless pre-uvular affricate in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical voiceless uvular affricate, though not as front as the prototypical voiceless velar affricate. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨q̟͡χ̟⟩ or ⟨q᫈͜ꭓ᫈⟩ (both symbols denote an advanced ⟨q͡χ⟩) or ⟨k̠͡x̠⟩ (retracted ⟨k͡x⟩).

Occurrence

Language Word IPA Meaning Notes
Uzbek quruq / قوروق [q᫈uɾ̪uq᫈͜ꭓ᫈] 'dry' Allophone of /q/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.

See also

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