Voiced velar plosive

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Because of technical restrictions the symbol for the voiced velar plosive might be rendered as an uppercase Y instead of an opentail lower-case g on your system.

IPA – number	110
IPA – text	ɡ
IPA – image	Image:Xsampa-g.png
Entity	ɡ
X-SAMPA	g
Kirshenbaum	g
Sound sample (help·info)

The voiced velar plosive 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 "opentail G" Image:Opentail g.svg, though the "looptail G" Image:Looptail g.svg is considered an acceptable alternative. The Unicode character "Latin small letter G" (U+0067) renders as either an opentail G or a looptail G depending on font, while the character "Latin small letter script G" (U+0261) is always an opentail G, but is generally available only in fonts with the IPA Extensions character block.

Of the six plosives 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. The former is an areal feature (see Voiceless bilabial plosive). Missing [ɡ], on the other hand, is widely scattered around the world. (A few languages, such as Modern Standard Arabic and Ket, are missing both.) It seems that [ɡ] is somewhat more difficult to articulate than the other basic plosives. 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. (Note that 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 Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [g].

Contents 1 Features 2 Varieties of [g] 3 Occurrence 4 References 5 Bibliography 6 See also

[edit] Features

Features of the voiced velar plosive:

• Its manner of articulation is plosive or stop, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract.
• Its place of articulation is velar which means it is articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the velum).
• Its phonation type is voiced, which means it is produced while the vocal cords are vibrating.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by allowing the airstream to flow over the middle of the tongue, rather than the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive, which means it is articulated by pushing air out of the lungs and through the vocal tract, rather than from the glottis or the mouth.

[edit] Varieties of [g]

IPA	Description
ɡ	plain g
ɡʱ or ɡ̈	breathy voiced or murmured g
ɡʲ	palatalized g
ɡʷ	labialized g
ɡ̚	unreleased g
ɡ̊	voiceless or slack voice g

[edit] Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ажыга	[aˈʐəɡa]	'shovel'	See Abkhaz phonology
Arabic	Egyptian	راجل	[ɾæːgɪl]	'man'	See Arabic phonology
Czech		gram	[gram]	'gramme'	See Czech phonology
Dutch		zakdoek	[ˈzɑgduk]	'handkerchief'	See Dutch phonology
English		gash	[gæʃ]	'gash'	See English phonology
French		gain	[gɛ̃]	'earnings'	See French phonology
Georgian[1]		გული	[ˈguli]	'back'
German		Lüge	[ˈlyːgə]	'lie'	See German phonology
Greek		γκάρισμα	[ˈgarizma]	'donkey's bray'	See Modern Greek phonology
Hindi		गाना	[gɑnɑ]	'song'	See Hindi-Urdu phonology
Hungarian		engedély	[ɛŋgɛdeːj]	'permission'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian		fegato	[ˈfegato]	'liver'	See Italian phonology
Japanese		がん•癌/gan	[gaɴ]	'cancer'	See Japanese phonology
Norwegian		gull	[gʉl]	'gull'	See Norwegian phonology
Polish		gęsty	[ˈgɛ̃stɨ]	'thick'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese		língua	[ˈlĩgwɐ]	'tongue'	See Portuguese phonology
Russian		голова	[gəlɐˈva]	'head'	See Russian phonology
Somali		gaabi	[gaːbi]	'to shorten'	See Somali phonology
Spanish[2]		gato	[ˈgato̞]	'cat'	See Spanish phonology
Turkish		göl	[gœl]	'lake'	See Turkish phonology

[edit] References

[edit] Bibliography

• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Ana Ma. Fernández-Planas & Josefina Carrera-Sabaté (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 33 (2): 255-259
• Shosted, Ryan K. & Chikovani Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36 (2): 255-264

[edit] See also

• List of phonetics topics

Consonants (List, table)	See also: IPA, Vowels
Pulmonics Bilabial Lab'den. Dental Alveolar Postalv. Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn. Epiglottal Glottal Non-pulmonics and other symbols Nasals m ɱ n̪ n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴ Clicks  ʘ ǀ ǁ ǃ ǂ Plosives p b p̪ b̪ t̪ d̪ t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔ Implo­­sives  ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ ʛ Fricatives  ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ ʁ ħ ʕ ʜ ʢ h ɦ Ejec­­tives  pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ sʼ Approximants  ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰ Other laterals  ɺ ɫ Trills ʙ r • ʀ • Co-articulated approximants  ʍ w ɥ Flaps & Taps • ѵ ɾ ɽ • Co-articulated fricatives  ɕ ʑ ɧ Lat. Fricatives ɬ ɮ • • • Affricates  t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ Lat. Appr'mants l ɭ ʎ ʟ Co-articulated stops  k͡p ɡ͡b ŋ͡m
This page contains phonetic information in IPA, which may not display correctly in some browsers. [Help] Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote pulmonic articulations judged impossible.

bn:ঘোষ পশ্চাত্তালব্য স্পর্শধ্বনি

br:Kensonenn drekstaon dre serriñ mouezhiet ca:Oclusiva velar sonora cs:Znělá velární ploziva de:Stimmhafter velarer Plosiv fr:Consonne occlusive vélaire voisée ko:유성 연구개 파열음 it:Occlusiva velare sonora ja:有声軟口蓋破裂音 pl:Spółgłoska zwarta miękkopodniebienna dźwięczna pt:Oclusiva velar sonora ro:Consoană oclusivă velară sonoră sv:Tonande velar klusil zh:濁軟顎塞音