Voiced velar stop

Voiced velar stop
ɡ
IPA number	110
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɡ
Unicode (hex)	U+0261
X-SAMPA	g
Kirshenbaum	g
Braille
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Sound
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The voiced velar stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɡ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called single-story G , though the double-story G is considered an acceptable alternative. The Unicode character "Latin small letter G" (U+0067) renders as either a single-story G or a double-story G depending on font, while the character "Latin small letter script G" (U+0261) is always a single-story G, but is generally available only in fonts with the IPA Extensions character block.

There is also a voiced post-velar stop (also called pre-uvular) in some languages. For voiced pre-velar stop (also called post-palatal), see voiced palatal stop.

Features

Features of the voiced velar stop:

• 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 stop.

• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue at the soft palate.

• Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.

• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.

• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.

• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Varieties of [ɡ]

Occurrence^[1]

Of the six stops that would be expected from the most common pattern world-wide—that is, three places of articulation plus voicing ([p b, t d, k ɡ])—[p] and [ɡ] are the most frequently missing, being absent in about 10% of languages that otherwise have this pattern. Absent stop [p] is an areal feature (see also Voiceless bilabial stop). Missing [ɡ], on the other hand, is widely scattered around the world. (A few languages, such as Modern Standard Arabic, are missing both.) It seems that [ɡ] is somewhat more difficult to articulate than the other basic stops. Ian Maddieson speculates that this may be due to a physical difficulty in voicing velars: Voicing requires that air flow into the mouth cavity, and the relatively small space allowed by the position of velar consonants means that it will fill up with air quickly, making voicing difficult to maintain in [ɡ] for as long as it is in [d] or [b]. This could have two effects: [ɡ] and [k] might become confused, and the distinction is lost, or perhaps a [ɡ] never develops when a language first starts making voicing distinctions. With uvulars, where there is even less space between the glottis and tongue for airflow, the imbalance is more extreme: Voiced [ɢ] is much rarer than voiceless [q].

Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [ɡ].

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ажыга	[aˈʐəɡa]	'shovel'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe	Shapsug	гьанэ	[ɡʲaːna]	'shirt'	Dialectal. Corresponds to [dʒ] in other dialects.
Arabic[2]	Egyptian	راجل	[ˈɾˤɑːɡel]	'man'	Corresponds to [dʒ] or [ʒ] in other dialects. See Arabic phonology
	Yemeni	قال	[ɡɑːl]	'he said'	Some dialects.
Armenian	Eastern[3]	գանձ	[ɡɑndz]	'treasure'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		ɡana	[ɡa:na]	'self'	Used predominantly in Iraqi Koine. Corresponds to [dʒ] in Urmia, some Tyari and Jilu dialects.
Azerbaijani		qara	[ɡɑɾɑ]	'black'
Basque		galdu	[ɡaldu]	'lose'
Bengali		গান	[ɡan]	'song'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		гора	[ɡora]	'wood'
Catalan[4]		gros	[ɡɾɔs]	'large'	See Catalan phonology
Czech		gram	[ɡram]	'gram'	See Czech phonology
Dutch	All dialects	zakdoek	[ˈzɑɡduk]	'handkerchief'	Allophone of /k/, occurring only before voiced consonants in native words. See Dutch phonology
	Standard[5]
	Many speakers	goal	[ɡoːɫ]	'goal'	Only in loanwords. Some speakers may realize it as [ɣ] ~ [ʝ] ~ [χ] ~ [x] (like a normal Dutch ⟨g⟩), or as [k].
	Amelands	goëd	[ɡuə̯t]	'good'
English	Australian[6]	gaudy	[ˈɡ̄oːdɪi̯]	'gaudy'	Post-velar.[6] Allophone of /g/ before /ʊ oː ɔ oɪ ʊə/.[6] See Australian English phonology
	Most speakers	gaggle	[ˈɡæɡɫ̩]	'gaggle'	See English phonology
French[7]		gain	[ɡɛ̃]	'earnings'	See French phonology
Georgian[8]		გული	[ˈɡuli]	'heart'
German		Lüge	[ˈlyːɡə]	'lie'	See German phonology
Greek		γκάρισμα gkárisma	[ˈɡaɾizma]	'donkey's bray'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		ગાવું gāvu		'to sing'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		גב	[ɡav]	'back'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		गाना / گانا	[ɡɑːnɑː]	'song'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
Hungarian		engedély	[ɛŋɡɛdeːj]	'permission'	See Hungarian phonology
Irish		gaineamh	[ˈɡanʲəw]	'sand'	See Irish phonology
Italian[9]		gare	[ˈɡare]	'competitions'	See Italian phonology
Japanese[10]		がん•癌 gan	[ɡaɴ]	'cancer'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian	Baslaney	гьанэ	[ɡʲaːna]	'shirt'	Corresponds to [dʒ] in other dialects.
	Turkish Kabardians
Kagayanen[11]		?	[kað̞aɡ]	'spirit'
Korean		메기 megi	[meɡi]	'catfish'	See Korean phonology
Macedonian		гром	[ɡrɔm]	'thunder'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		guni	[ɡuni]	'sack'
Marathi		गवत	[ɡəʋət]	'grass'	See Marathi phonology
Norwegian		gull	[ɡʉl]	'gold'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish[12]		gmin	[ɡmʲin̪]	'plebs'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[13]		língua	[ˈɫĩɡwɐ]	'tongue'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਗਾਂ	[ɡɑ̃ː]	'cow'
Romanian[14]		gând	[ɡɨnd]	'thought'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[15]		голова	[ɡəlɐˈva]	'head'	See Russian phonology
Slovak		miazga	[mjazɡa]	'lymph'	See Slovak phonology
Somali		gaabi	[ɡaːbi]	'to shorten'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[16]		gato	[ˈɡät̪o̞]	'cat'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		god	[ɡuːd̪]	'tasty'	May be an approximant in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
Turkish		salgın	[säɫˈɡɯn]	'epidemic'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian		ґанок	[ˈɡɑ.n̪ok]	'steps'	See Ukrainian phonology
West Frisian		gasp	[ɡɔsp]	'buckle' (n.)
Yanyuwa[17]		[ɡ̄uɟ̠uɭu]		'sacred'	Post-velar.[17] Contrasts plain and prenasalized versions
Yi		ꈨ gge	[ɡɤ˧]	'hear'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[18]	gan	[ɡaŋ]	'will be able'	Depending on speaker and carefulness of speech, [ɡ] may be lenited to [ɣ]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

References

Bibliography

International Phonetic Alphabet   IPA topics IPA International Phonetic Association History of the IPA Extensions to the IPA Kiel convention (1989) Journal of the IPA (JIPA) Naming conventions Phonetics Diacritics Segments Tone letter Place of articulation Manner of articulation Special topics Case variants of IPA letters Handwritten IPA Obsolete and nonstandard symbols IPA chart for English dialects Encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode WorldBet IPA Braille   Consonants IPA pulmonic consonantschart image • audio Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal ↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Dental Alveolar Palato­alveolar Retroflex Alveolopalatal Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Epiglottal Nasal m̥ m ɱ n̥ n ɳ̊ ɳ ɲ̊ ɲ ŋ̊ ŋ ɴ Stop p b p̪ b̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Sibilant fricative s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ɕ ʑ Non-sibilant fricative ɸ β f v θ ð θ̱ ð̠ ɹ̠̊˔ ɹ̠˔ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Approximant ʋ ɹ ɻ̊ ɻ j̊ j ɰ̊ ɰ Flap or tap ⱱ̟ ⱱ ɾ̥ ɾ ɽ̊ ɽ ɢ̆ ʡ̯ Trill ʙ r̥ r ɽ͡r̥ ɽ͡r ʀ̥ ʀ ᴙ * Lateral fricative ɬ ɮ ꞎ * ʎ̥˔ ʎ̝ ʟ̝̊ ʟ̝ Lateral approximant l̥ l ɭ̊ ɭ ʎ̥ ʎ ʟ ʟ̠ Lateral flap ɺ ɺ̢ * ʎ̯ ʟ̆ Non-pulmonic consonants Clicks ʘ ǀ ǃ ǂ ǁ ‼ ʞ ʘ̃ ʘ̃ˀ ʘ͡q ʘ͡qʼ Implosives ɓ̥ ɓ ɗ̥ ɗ ᶑ ʄ̊ ʄ ɠ ʛ Ejectives pʼ t̪ʼ tʼ ʈʼ cʼ kʼ qʼ fʼ θʼ sʼ ɬʼ ʃʼ ʂʼ ɕʼ xʼ χʼ tsʼ tɬʼ cʎ̝̥ʼ tʃʼ ʈʂʼ kxʼ kʟ̝̊ʼ qχʼ Affricates p̪f b̪v ts dz tθ dð tʃ dʒ tɕ dʑ ʈʂ ɖʐ tɬ dɮ cç ɟʝ cʎ̝̥ kx kʟ̝̊ ɡʟ̝ qχ Co-articulated consonants Continuants ʍ w ɥ ɧ Occlusives k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m — These tables contain phonetic symbols, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] — Where symbols appear in pairs, left–right represent the voiceless–voiced consonants. — Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged to be impossible. — Symbols marked with an asterisk (*) are not defined in the IPA. Chart image Pulmonics Non-pulmonics Affricates Co-articulated   Vowels Front Near-​front Central Near-​back Back Close •iy •ɨʉ •ɯu •ɪʏ •ɪ̈ʊ̈ ʊ •eø •ɘɵ •ɤo •e̞ø̞ •əɵ̞ •ɤ̞o̞ •ɛœ •ɜɞ •ʌɔ •æ ɐ •aɶ •äɒ̈ •ɑɒ Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open IPA help • chart •  chart with audio • view