Uvular ejective stop

Consonantal sound represented by ⟨qʼ⟩ in IPA

qʼ

IPA Number 111 + 401

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Encoding

Entity (decimal) qʼ

Unicode (hex) U+0071 U+02BC

X-SAMPA q_>

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The uvular ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨qʼ⟩.

Features

Features of the uvular ejective:

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 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.
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 ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

A single plain uvular ejective is found in almost all Northeast Caucasian languages, all South Caucasian languages, and some Athabaskan languages, as well as Itelmen, Quechua and Aymara.

Most Salishan languages, the Tlingit language, and Adyghe and Kabardian (Northwest Caucasian) demonstrate a two-way contrast between labialised and plain uvular ejectives.

The Akhvakh language appears to have a contrast between lax and tense uvular ejectives: [qʼaː] 'soup, broth' (lax) vs. [qːʼama] 'cock's comb' (tense).

Abkhaz contrasts plain, palatalised and labialised uvular ejectives, written ⟨ҟ, ҟь, ҟə⟩, e.g., аҟаҧшь [aqʼapʃ] 'red', -ҵəҟьа [-t͡ɕʷʼqʲʼa] 'really, indeed (a verbal suffix)', Аҟәа [aqʷʼa] 'Sukhum'. As with Georgian, Abkhaz has no non-ejective uvular stops; the historically present uvular aspirates have merged with their corresponding fricatives, although the aspirates are preserved in Abaza.

The plain uvular ejective is one of the most common consonants in Ubykh, due to its presence in the past tense suffix /-qʼɜ/. But in addition to palatalised, labialised and plain uvular ejectives, Ubykh also possesses a pharyngealised version and a concurrently labialised and pharyngealised version, making a total of five: [qʼɜqʼɜ] 'he said it', [mɨqʲʼ] 'small and round', [qʷʼɜ] 'to seize', [qˤʼɜqˤʼ] 'to chew', [qʷˤʼɜ] 'cavern'.

Examples

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abaza		къапщы/q̇apśə	[qʼapɕə]	'red'
Abkhaz		аҟаԥшь/aq̇apš	[aqʼapʃ]	'red'
Adyghe	Hakuchi	къӏэ/q̇e	[qʼa]^ⓘ	'hand'	Dialectal. Corresponds to [ʔ] in other dialects.
Archi		къам/q̇am	[qʼam]	'forelock'
Azeri	North dialects	qədim	[qʼæˈd̪i̞m]	'ancient'
Batsbi		ყარ/q̇ar	[qʼar]	'rain'
Chechen		къийг/q̇iyg/ڨـییگ	[qʼiːg]	'crow'
Dargwa	Mehweb^[1]	uq’laha	[uq’ˈlaha]	'window'	contrasts with /q/, /qʷ/, and /q’ʷ/
Georgian^[2]		ყვავილი/q̇vavili	[ˈqʼvävili]	'flower'	Unlike the velar ejective, it does not contrast with voiced or voiceless uvular stops; the Old Georgian voiceless uvular stop has merged with the voiceless velar fricative in modern Georgian. Some scholars view this Georgian phoneme as being rather an uvular ejective fricative /χʼ/.
Haida		qqayttas	[qʼajtʼas]	'basket'
Itelmen		ӄ'ил'хч	[qʼilˀxt͡ʃ]	'to depart'
Klallam		wəq̕ə́q̕	[wəqʼəqʼ]	'frog'	contrasts with labialized uvular ejective stop, e.g., sq̕ʷúŋi(ʔ) [sqʷʼuɴi(ʔ)] 'head'.
Laz		მყოროფონი/mqoroponi	[mqʼɔrɔˈpʰɔni]	'loving'
Lezgian		кьакьан	[qʼaqʼan]	'tall', 'high'	contrasts with labialized version, e.g., кьвех [qʷʼeχ] 'groin'
Lushootseed		q̓il̕bid	[qʼil̰bid]	'canoe'
Mingrelian		ორტყაფუ/orṭq̇apu	[ɔrtʼqʼapʰu]	'belt'
North Straits Salish		KEYOṮEN	[qʼəjat͡ɬʼənˀ]	'slug, snail'	contrasts with the labialized version, e.g., SK̴EḰĆES [sqʷʼəqʷt͡ʃəs] 'red huckleberry'.
Quechua		q'illu	[qʼɛʎʊ]	'yellow'
Svan		ჭყინტ/č̣q̇inṭ	[t͡ʃʼqʼintʼ]	'boy'
Tahltan		[qʼaχaːdiː]		'door'
Tlingit		k̲ʼateil	[qʼʌtʰeːɬ]^ⓘ	‘pitcher’
Ubykh		qʼeqʼe/qʼɜqʼɜ	[qʼɜqʼɜ]	'(s)he said it' or '(s)he said

References

^ Moros, George (2019). "Phonology of Mehweb". In Daniel, Michael; Dobrushina, Nina; Ganenkov, Dmitry (eds.). The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax. Languages of the Caucasus. Vol. 1. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 24. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3402056. hdl:/20.500.12657/23417. ISBN 978-3-96110-208-2.
^ Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006). "Standard Georgian" (PDF). Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 36 (2): 255–264. doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659. ISSN 1475-3502.

External links

List of languages with [qʼ] on PHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA	International Phonetic Association History of the alphabet Extensions for disordered speech (extIPA) Voice Quality Symbols (VoQS) Journal of the IPA (JIPA)
Special topics	Cursive forms Case variants Obsolete and nonstandard symbols Naming conventions Sinological extensions World Orthography IPA chart for English dialects
Encodings	ASCII encodings SAMPA X-SAMPA Kirshenbaum TIPA Phonetic symbols in Unicode IPA number IPA Braille

Consonants

Pulmonic consonants

Place →	Labial					Coronal										Dorsal					Laryngeal
Manner ↓	Bilabial		Labiodental		Linguolabial		Dental		Alveolar		Postalveolar		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/epiglottal		Glottal
Nasal	m̥	m	ɱ̊	ɱ		n̼			n̥	n			ɳ̊	ɳ	ɲ̊	ɲ	ŋ̊	ŋ	ɴ̥	ɴ
Plosive	p	b	p̪	b̪	t̼	d̼			t	d			ʈ	ɖ	c	ɟ	k	ɡ	q	ɢ	ʡ		ʔ
Sibilant affricate									ts	dz	t̠ʃ	d̠ʒ	tʂ	dʐ	tɕ	dʑ
Non-sibilant affricate	pɸ	bβ	p̪f	b̪v			t̪θ	d̪ð	tɹ̝̊	dɹ̝	t̠ɹ̠̊˔	d̠ɹ̠˔			cç	ɟʝ	kx	ɡɣ	qχ	ɢʁ	ʡʜ	ʡʢ	ʔh
Sibilant fricative									s	z	ʃ	ʒ	ʂ	ʐ	ɕ	ʑ
Non-sibilant fricative	ɸ	β	f	v	θ̼	ð̼	θ	ð	θ̠	ð̠	ɹ̠̊˔	ɹ̠˔	ɻ̊˔	ɻ˔	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ	χ	ʁ	ħ	ʕ	h	ɦ
Approximant				ʋ						ɹ				ɻ		j		ɰ						ʔ̞
Tap/flap		ⱱ̟		ⱱ		ɾ̼			ɾ̥	ɾ			ɽ̊	ɽ						ɢ̆		ʡ̆
Trill	ʙ̥	ʙ							r̥	r			ɽ̊r̥	ɽr					ʀ̥	ʀ	ʜ	ʢ
Lateral affricate									tɬ	dɮ			tꞎ	d𝼅	c𝼆	ɟʎ̝	k𝼄	ɡʟ̝
Lateral fricative									ɬ	ɮ			ꞎ	𝼅	𝼆	ʎ̝	𝼄	ʟ̝
Lateral approximant										l				ɭ		ʎ		ʟ		ʟ̠
Lateral tap/flap									ɺ̥	ɺ			𝼈̥	𝼈		ʎ̆		ʟ̆

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Symbols to the right in a cell are voiced, to the left are voiceless. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.

Non-pulmonic consonants

		BL	LD	D	A	PA	RF	P	V	U	EG
Ejective	Stop	pʼ			tʼ		ʈʼ	cʼ	kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
	Affricate		p̪fʼ	t̪θʼ	tsʼ	t̠ʃʼ	tʂʼ		kxʼ	qχʼ
	Fricative	ɸʼ	fʼ	θʼ	sʼ	ʃʼ	ʂʼ	ɕʼ	xʼ	χʼ
	Lateral affricate				tɬʼ			c𝼆ʼ	k𝼄ʼ	q𝼄ʼ
	Lateral fricative				ɬʼ
Click (top: velar; bottom: uvular)	Tenuis	kʘ qʘ		kǀ qǀ	kǃ qǃ		k𝼊 q𝼊	kǂ qǂ
	Voiced	ɡʘ ɢʘ		ɡǀ ɢǀ	ɡǃ ɢǃ		ɡ𝼊 ɢ𝼊	ɡǂ ɢǂ
	Nasal	ŋʘ ɴʘ		ŋǀ ɴǀ	ŋǃ ɴǃ		ŋ𝼊 ɴ𝼊	ŋǂ ɴǂ	ʞ
	Tenuis lateral				kǁ qǁ
	Voiced lateral				ɡǁ ɢǁ
	Nasal lateral				ŋǁ ɴǁ
Implosive	Voiced	ɓ			ɗ		ᶑ	ʄ	ɠ	ʛ
Implosive	Voiceless	ɓ̥			ɗ̥		ᶑ̊	ʄ̊	ɠ̊	ʛ̥

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Co-articulated consonants

Labial–alveolar

Labial–velar

Fricative/approximant

ɥ̊

Labial–palatal

Labial–velar

Sj-sound (variable)

Lateral approximant

Velarized alveolar

Labial–velar

Labial–alveolar

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Other	Nasal labial–velar approximant [w̃] Nasal palatal approximant [j̃] Voiceless bidental fricative [h̪͆] Voiceless bilabially post-trilled dental stop [t̪ʙ̥] Voiceless nasal glottal approximant [h̃]