Jump to content

Main menu Navigation ●Main page ●Contents ●Current events ●Random article ●About Wikipedia ●Contact us ●Donate Contribute ●Help ●Learn to edit ●Community portal ●Recent changes ●Upload file

●Create account ●Log in ●Create account ● Log in Pages for logged out editors learn more ●Contributions ●Talk

(Top) 1 Features 2 Varieties 3 Occurrence 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

Voiceless velar plosive

●Alemannisch ●العربية ●Aragonés ●বাংলা ●閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú ●Беларуская ●Български ●Brezhoneg ●Català ●Čeština ●Deutsch ●Ελληνικά ●Español ●Esperanto ●Euskara ●فارسی ●Français ●한국어 ●Hrvatski ●Bahasa Indonesia ●Italiano ●עברית ●Limburgs ●Bahasa Melayu ●Nederlands ●日本語 ●Polski ●Português ●Română ●Русский ●Simple English ●Suomi ●Svenska ●ไทย ●Türkçe ●Українська ●Vèneto ●粵語 ●中文 Edit links ●Article ●Talk ●Read ●Edit ●View history Tools Actions ●Read ●Edit ●View history General ●What links here ●Related changes ●Upload file ●Special pages ●Permanent link ●Page information ●Cite this page ●Get shortened URL ●Download QR code ●Wikidata item Print/export ●Download as PDF ●Printable version Appearance From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Voiceless velar plosive
k
IPA Number	109
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	`k`
Unicode (hex)	U+006B
X-SAMPA	`k`
Braille

The voiceless velar plosiveorstop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨k⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k.

The [k] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [k], and some distinguish more than one variety. Most Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi and Bengali, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [k]. Only a few languages lack a voiceless velar plosive, e.g. Tahitian and Mongolian.

Some languages have the voiceless pre-velar plosive,^[1] which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as front as the prototypical palatal plosive.

Conversely, some languages have the voiceless post-velar plosive,^[2] which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as back as the prototypical uvular plosive.

Features[edit]

Features of the voiceless velar stop:

Its manner of articulationisocclusive, 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 articulationisvelar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
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 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 mechanismispulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Varieties[edit]

IPA	Description
k	plain k
kʰ	aspiratedk
kʲ	palatalizedk
kʷ	labializedk
k̚	k with no audible release
k̬	voicedk
k͈	tensek
kʼ	ejectivek

Occurrence[edit]

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ақалақь/ak̇halak̇h'	[ˈakalakʲ]	'the city'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe	Shapsug	кьэт/k′ėt	[kʲat]^ⓘ	'chicken'	Dialectal; corresponds to [t͡ʃ] in other dialects.
Adyghe	Temirgoy	пскэн/pskėn	[pskan]	'to cough'	Dialectal; corresponds to [t͡ʃ] in other dialects.
Ahtna		gistaann	[kɪstʰɐːn]	'six'
Aleut^[3]		kiikax̂	[kiːkaχ]	'cranberry bush'
Arabic	Modern Standard^[4]	كتب/kataba	[ˈkatabɐ]	'he wrote'	See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern^[5]	քաղաք/ k'aġak'/k'aghak	[kʰɑˈʁɑkʰ]	'town'	Contrasts with unaspirated form.
Assamese		কম/kom	[kɔm]	'less'
Assyrian		ܟܬܒ̣ܐ ctava	[ktava]	'book'	Used in most varieties, with the exception of the Urmia and Nochiya dialects where it corresponds to [t͡ʃ].
Basque		katu	[kat̪u]	'cat'
Bengali		কম/kom	[kɔm]	'less'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		как/kak	[kak]	'how'	See Bulgarian phonology
Cantonese		家/gā	[kaː˥]^ⓘ	'home'	See Cantonese phonology
Cantonese		橋/桥/kìuh	[kʰi:u˨˩]	'bridge'	See Cantonese phonology
Catalan^[6]		cors	[ˈkɔ(ɾ)s]	'hearts'	See Catalan phonology
Chuvash		кукка	[ku'kːɑ]	'mother's brother'
Czech		kost	[kost]	'bone'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard^[7]	gås	[ˈkɔ̽ːs]	'goose'	Usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨ɡ̊⟩ or ⟨ɡ⟩. Contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed in IPA with ⟨kʰ⟩ or ⟨k⟩. See Danish phonology
Dutch^[8]		koning	[ˈkoːnɪŋ]	'king'	See Dutch phonology
English		kiss	[kʰɪs]^ⓘ	'kiss'	See English phonology
Esperanto		rakonto	[raˈkonto]	'tale'	See Esperanto phonology
Estonian		kõik	[kɤik]	'all'	See Estonian phonology
Filipino		kuto	[ˈkuto]	'lice'
Finnish		kakku	[kɑkːu]	'cake'	See Finnish phonology
French^[9]		cabinet	[kabinɛ]	'office'	See French phonology
Georgian^[10]		ქვა/kva	[kʰva]	'stone'
German		Käfig	[ˈkʰɛːfɪç]	'cage'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		καλόγερος / kalógeros	[kaˈlo̞ʝe̞ro̞s̠]	'monk'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		કાંદો/kaṃde	[kɑːnd̪oː]	'onion'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		כסף / kesef	[ˈkesef]	'money'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hiligaynon		kadlaw	[kad̪law]	'laugh'
Hindustani		काम / کام	[kɑːm]	'work'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology
Hokkien		歌/koa	[kua˧˨]	'song'	See Hokkien phonology
Hokkien		區/区/khu	[kʰu˧˨]	'district'	See Hokkien phonology
Hungarian		akkor	[ɒkkor]	'then'	See Hungarian phonology
Italian^[11]		casa	[ˈkäːzä]	'house'	See Italian phonology
Japanese^[12]		鞄 / kaban	[kabaɴ]	'handbag'	See Japanese phonology
Kagayanen^[13]		kalag	[kað̞aɡ]	'spirit'
Khmer		កម្ពុជា / kâmpŭchéa	[kampuciːə]	'Cambodia'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		감자 / kamja	[kamdʑa]	'potato'	See Korean phonology
Lakota		kimímela	[kɪˈmɪmela]	'butterfly'
Luxembourgish^[14]		geess	[ˈkeːs]	'goat'	Less often voiced [ɡ]. It is usually transcribed in IPA as ⟨ɡ⟩, and it contrasts with aspirated form, which is usually transcribed ⟨k⟩.^[14] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		кој	[kɔj]	'who'	See Macedonian phonology
Marathi		कवच	[kəʋət͡s]	'armour'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Marathi phonology
Malay		kaki	[käki]	'leg'	Unreleased in syllable codas in some words, See Malay phonology
Malayalam		കഥ/kada	[käd̪ʰä]	'story'	See Malayalam phonology
Mandarin		高/gāo	[kɑʊ˥]^ⓘ	'high'	See Mandarin phonology
Mandarin		烤/kǎo	[kʰɑʊ˨˩˦]	'roast' (v.)	See Mandarin phonology
Nepali		केरा	[keɾä]	'banana'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		kake	[kɑːkɛ]	'cake'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		କାମ/kāma	[kämɔ]	'work'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Pashto		كال/kal	[kɑl]	'year'
Persian		کارد/kārd	[kɑrd]	'knife'
Polish^[15]		buk	[ˈbuk]^ⓘ	'beech tree'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese^[16]		corpo	[ˈkoɾpu]	'body'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਕਰ/کر/kar	[kəɾ]	'do'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Romanian^[17]		când	[ˈkɨnd]	'when'	See Romanian phonology
Russian^[18]		короткий/korotkiy	[kɐˈrotkʲɪj]^ⓘ	'short'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian^[19]		кост / kost	[kȏːs̪t̪]	'bone'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		kosť	[kɔ̝sc]	'bone'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		kost	[ˈkôːs̪t̪]	'bone'	Aspirated before close vowels. See Slovene phonology
Spanish^[20]		casa	[ˈkäsä]	'house'	See Spanish phonology
Swedish		ko	[ˈkʰuː]	'cow'	See Swedish phonology
Sylheti		ꠇꠤꠔꠣ/kita	[kɪt̪à]	'what'
Tamil		கை/kai	[kəɪ̯]	'hand'	See Tamil phonology
Telugu		కాకి/kāki	[kāki]	'crow'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Thai		ไก่/kị̀	[kaj˨˩]	'chicken'	Contrasts with an aspirated form.
Turkish		kulak	[kʰuɫäk]	'ear'	See Turkish phonology
Ubykh		кауар/kawar	[kawar]	'slat'	Found mostly in loanwords. See Ubykh phonology
Ukrainian^[21]		колесо/koleso	[ˈkɔɫɛsɔ]	'wheel'	See Ukrainian phonology
Vietnamese^[22]		cam	[kam]	'orange'	See Vietnamese phonology
Welsh		calon	[kalɔn]	'heart'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		keal	[kɪəl]	'calf'	See West Frisian phonology
Yi		ꇰ / ge	[kɤ˧]	'foolish'	Contrasts aspirated and unaspirated forms.
Zapotec	Tilquiapan^[23]	canza	[kanza]	'walking'

Notes[edit]

^ Instead of "pre-velar", it can be called "advanced velar", "fronted velar", "front-velar", "palato-velar", "post-palatal", "retracted palatal" or "backed palatal".

^ Instead of "post-velar", it can be called "retracted velar", "backed velar", "pre-uvular", "advanced uvular" or "fronted uvular".

^ Ladefoged (2005), p. 165.

^ Thelwall (1990), p. 37.

^ Dum-Tragut (2009), p. 13.

^ Carbonell & Llisterri (1992), p. 53.

^ Basbøll (2005:61)

^ Gussenhoven (1992), p. 45.

^ Fougeron & Smith (1993), p. 73.

^ Shosted & Chikovani (2006), p. 255.

^ Rogers & d'Arcangeli (2004), p. 117.

^ Okada (1999), p. 117.

^ Olson et al. (2010), pp. 206–207.

^ ^a ^b Gilles & Trouvain (2013:67–68)

^ Jassem (2003), p. 103.

^ Cruz-Ferreira (1995), p. 91.

^ DEX Online: [1]

^ Padgett (2003), p. 42.

^ Landau et al. (1999), p. 66.

^ Martínez-Celdrán, Fernández-Planas & Carrera-Sabaté (2003), p. 255.

^ Danyenko & Vakulenko (1995), p. 4.

^ Thompson (1959), pp. 458–461.

^ Merrill (2008), p. 108.

References[edit]

Basbøll, Hans (2005), The Phonology of Danish, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-203-97876-5

Carbonell, Joan F.; Llisterri, Joaquim (1992), "Catalan", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (1–2): 53–56, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004618, S2CID 249411809

Cruz-Ferreira, Madalena (1995), "European Portuguese", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 25 (2): 90–94, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005223, S2CID 249414876

Danyenko, Andrii; Vakulenko, Serhii (1995), Ukrainian, Lincom Europa, ISBN 978-3-929075-08-3

Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L. (1993), "French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 23 (2): 73–76, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004874, S2CID 249404451

Gilles, Peter; Trouvain, Jürgen (2013), "Luxembourgish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 67–74, doi:10.1017/S0025100312000278

Gussenhoven, Carlos (1992), "Dutch", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 22 (2): 45–47, doi:10.1017/S002510030000459X, S2CID 243772965

Jassem, Wiktor (2003), "Polish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (1): 103–107, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001191

Ladefoged, Peter (2005), Vowels and Consonants (Second ed.), Blackwell

Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373

Merrill, Elizabeth (2008), "Tilquiapan Zapotec" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 38 (1): 107–114, doi:10.1017/S0025100308003344

Okada, Hideo (1999), "Japanese", in International Phonetic Association (ed.), Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A Guide to the Use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–119, ISBN 978-0-52163751-0

Olson, Kenneth; Mielke, Jeff; Sanicas-Daguman, Josephine; Pebley, Carol Jean; Paterson, Hugh J. III (2010), "The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (2): 199–215, doi:10.1017/S0025100309990296, S2CID 38504322

Padgett, Jaye (2003), "Contrast and Post-Velar Fronting in Russian", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 21 (1): 39–87, doi:10.1023/A:1021879906505, S2CID 13470826

Rogers, Derek; d'Arcangeli, Luciana (2004), "Italian", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 34 (1): 117–121, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001628

Shosted, Ryan K.; Chikovani, Vakhtang (2006), "Standard Georgian" (PDF), Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 36 (2): 255–264, doi:10.1017/S0025100306002659

Thelwall, Robin (1990), "Arabic", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 20 (2): 37–41, doi:10.1017/S0025100300004266, S2CID 243640727

Thompson, Laurence (1959), "Saigon phonemics", Language, 35 (3): 454–476, doi:10.2307/411232, JSTOR 411232

Landau, Ernestina; Lončarića, Mijo; Horga, Damir; Škarić, Ivo (1999), "Croatian", Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 66–69, ISBN 978-0-521-65236-0

External links[edit]

List of languages with [k]onPHOIBLE

International Phonetic Alphabet (chart)

IPA topics

IPA

Special topics

Encodings

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

IPA help

audio

full chart

template

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	tɕʼ	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