Voiced velar plosive

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 IPA|ɡ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called "opentail G" 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 (IPA| [p b, t d, k ɡ] ), IPA| [p] and IPA| [ɡ] are the most frequently missing, being absent in about 10% of languages that otherwise have this pattern.fact|date=February 2008 The former is an areal feature (see Voiceless bilabial plosive).fact|date=February 2008 Missing IPA| [ɡ] , on the other hand, is widely scattered around the world.fact|date=February 2008 (A few languages, such as Modern Standard Arabic and Ket, are missing both.) It seems that IPA| [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 IPA| [ɡ] for as long as it is in IPA| [d] or IPA| [b] .fact|date=February 2008 This could have two effects: IPA| [ɡ] and IPA| [k] might become confused, and the distinction is lost, or perhaps a IPA| [ɡ] never develops when a language first starts making voicing distinctions.fact|date=February 2008 (with uvulars, where there is even less space between the glottis and tongue for airflow, the imbalance is more extreme: Voiced IPA| [ɢ] is much rarer than voiceless IPA| [q] fact|date=February 2008). Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [g] .

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.

Varieties of IPA| [ɡ]

Occurrence

See also

* List of phonetics topics

References

Bibliography

*Harvard reference
last=Carbonell
first=Joan F.
last2=Llisterri
first2=Joaquim
year=1992
title=Catalan
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=22
issue=1-2
pages=53-56
* Harvard reference
last=Cruz-Ferreira
first=Madalena
year= 1995
title=European Portuguese
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=25
issue=2
pages=90-94
*Harvard reference
last=Fougeron
first=Cecile
last2=Smith
first2=Caroline L
year=1993
title=Illustrations of the IPA:French
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=23
issue=2
pages=73-76
* Harvard reference
last=Gussenhoven
first=Carlos
year= 1992
title=Dutch
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=22
issue=2
pages=45-47
*Harvard reference
last = Jassem
first = Wiktor
year= 2003
title=Polish
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=33
issue=1
pages=103-107
*Harvard reference
last = Martínez-Celdrán
first= Eugenio
last2 = Fernández-Planas
first2= Ana Ma.
last3 = Carrera-Sabaté
first3 = Josefina
year= 2003
title=Castilian Spanish
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=33
issue=2
pages=255-259
*Harvard reference
last = Okada
first = Hideo
year= 1991
title=Phonetic Representation:Japanese
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=21
issue=2
pages=94-97
*Harvard reference
last =Padgett
first= Jaye
year= 2003
title= Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian
journal= Natural Language & Linguistic Theory
volume=21
issue=1
pages=39-87
*Harvard reference
last = Rogers
first = Derek
last2 = d'Arcangeli
first2 = Luciana
year= 2004
title=Italian
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=34
issue=1
pages=117-121
*Harvard reference
last = Shosted
first = Ryan K.
last2 = Vakhtang
first2 = Chikovani
year= 2006
title=Standard Georgian
journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association
volume=36
issue=2
pages=255-264
*Harvard reference
last = Watson
first= Janet
year= 2002
title= The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic
place=New York
publisher= Oxford University Press