Voiced velar plosive

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The voiced velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages.

Voiced velar plosive
ɡ
IPA number	110
Audio sample
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Encoding
Entity (decimal)	ɡ
Unicode (hex)	U+0261
X-SAMPA	g
Braille
Image

Some languages have the voiced 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 voiced 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.

IPA symbol

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-storey G , but the double-storey G is considered an acceptable alternative. The Unicode character U+0067 g LATIN SMALL LETTER G renders as either a single-storey G or a double-storey G depending on font; the character U+0261 ɡ LATIN SMALL LETTER SCRIPT G is always a single-storey G, but it is generally available only in fonts supporting the IPA Extensions Unicode character block.

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 plosive.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) 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.
• Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

Varieties

IPA	Description
ɡ	plain ɡ
ɡʱ	breathy ɡ
ɡʲ	palatalized ɡ
ɡʷ	labialized ɡ
ɡ̚	ɡ with no audible release
ɡ̥	voiceless ɡ
ɡ͈	tense ɡ

Occurrence

Of the six stops that would be expected from the most common pattern worldwide—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], (when the language uses voicing to contrast stops) on the other hand, is widely scattered around the world, for example /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Belarusian, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Czech, and Slovak and occurs only in borrowed words in those languages. A few languages, such as Modern Standard Arabic and part of the Levantine dialects (e.g. Lebanese and Syrian), are missing both, although most of the other Arabic dialects have /ɡ/ in their native phonemic systems as a reflex of ⟨ق⟩ or less commonly of ⟨ج⟩.

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].^[3]

In many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, plain [g] and aspirated [g^h] are in contrastive distribution.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		ажыга/ažëga	[aˈʐəɡa]	'shovel'	See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe	Shapsug	гьэгуалъэ/gägwaĺa	[ɡʲaɡʷaːɬa]ⓘ	'toy'	Dialectal. Corresponds to [d͡ʒ] in other dialects.
	Temirgoy	чъыгы/ čëgë	[t͡ʂəɡə]ⓘ	'tree'	Dialectal. Corresponds to [ɣ] in other dialects.
Albanian		gomar	[ˈɡomaɾ]	'donkey'
Arabic[4]	Moroccan	أݣادير‎ / ʾagādīr	[ʔaɡaːdiːr]	'Agadir'
	Tunisian	ڨفصة‎‎ / gafṣa	[ɡɑfsˤɑ]ⓘ	'Gafsa'	See Tunisian arabic phonology
	Hejazi	قمر / gamar	[ɡamar]	'moon'	Corresponds to [q] in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic.
	Najdi		[ɡəmar]
	Sa'idi		[ɡɑmɑr]
	Yemeni	قال / gāl	[gæːl]	'(he) said'	Pronunciation of ⟨ق⟩ in San'ani and Hadhrami dialects
		جمل / gamal	[gæmæl]	'camel'	Pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in Ta'izzi-Adeni and Tihami dialects
	Egyptian	راجل / rāgel	[ˈɾɑːɡel]	'man'	See Egyptian arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern[5]	գանձ/gandz	[ɡɑndz]ⓘ	'treasure'
Assyrian		ܓܢܐ ɡana	[ɡaːna]	'self'	Used predominantly in Urban Koine. Corresponds to [dʒ] in Urmia, some Tyari and Jilu dialects.
Azerbaijani		qara / قارا	[ɡɑɾɑ]	'black'
Basque		galdu	[ɡaldu]	'lose'
Bengali		গান/gan	[ɡan]	'song'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology
Bulgarian		гора/gora	[ɡora]	'forest'	See Bulgarian phonology
Catalan[6]		guant	[ˈɡwan̪(t̪)]	'glove'	See Catalan phonology
Chechen		говр/gowr	[ɡɔʊ̯r]	'horse'
Czech		gram	[ɡram]	'gram'	See Czech phonology
Danish	Standard[7][8]	lykke	[ˈløɡə]	'happiness'	Only partially voiced; possible allophone of /ɡ/ in the intervocalic position. More often voiceless [k].[7][8] See Danish phonology
Dutch	All dialects	zakdoek	[ˈzɑɡduk]ⓘ	'tissue'	Allophone of /k/, occurring only before voiced consonants in native words. See Dutch phonology
	Standard[9]
	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	[ɡuə̯d]	'good'
English		gaggle	[ˈɡæɡɫ̩]	'gaggle'	See English phonology
Filipino		gulo	[ɡulɔ]	'commotion'
French[10]		gain	[ɡɛ̃]	'earnings'	See French phonology
Georgian[11]		გული/guli	[ˈɡuli]	'heart'
German		Lüge	[ˈlyːɡə] ⓘ	'lie'	See Standard German phonology
Greek		γκάρισμα / gkárisma	[ˈɡɐɾizmɐ]	'donkey's bray'	See Modern Greek phonology
Gujarati		ગાવું/gávu	[gaːʋʊ̃]	'to sing'	See Gujarati phonology
Hebrew		גב/gav	[ɡav]	'back'	See Modern Hebrew phonology
Hindustani		गाना/gáná / gáná/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[12]		gare	[ˈɡäːre]	'competitions'	[g] is represented by letter G when followed by vowels [a], [o] [u], while when in front of vowels [i], [e] and [ɛ], the pronunciation changes to d͡ʒ, for the phoneme [g] to appear on the vowels [i], [e] and [ɛ], the GH digraph is used.
Japanese[13]		外套 / gaito	[ɡaitoː]	'overcoat'	See Japanese phonology
Kabardian	Baslaney	гьанэ/ gäna	[ɡʲaːna]ⓘ	'shirt'	Dialectal. Corresponds to [dʒ] in other dialects.
Kagayanen[14]		kalag	[kað̞aɡ]	'spirit'
Khmer		ហ្គាស / gas	[gaːh]	'gas'	See Khmer phonology
Korean		메기 / megi	[meɡi]	'catfish'	See Korean phonology
Limburgish		zegke	[zεgə]	'say'	Common. Example from the Weert dialect.
Lithuanian		garai	[ɡɐrɐɪ̯ˑ]	'steam'	See Lithuanian phonology
Luxembourgish[15]		agepack	[ˈɑɡəpaːk]	'gone about'	More often voiceless [k].[15] See Luxembourgish phonology
Macedonian		гром/grom	[ɡrɔm]	'thunder'	See Macedonian phonology
Malay		guni	[ɡuni]	'sack'
Marathi		गवत/gëvët	[ɡəʋət]	'grass'	See Marathi phonology
Nepali		गाउँ	[ɡä̃ũ̯]	'village'	Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology
Norwegian		gull	[ɡʉl]	'gold'	See Norwegian phonology
Odia		ଗଛ/gočho	[ɡɔtʃʰɔ]	'tree'	Contrasts with aspirated form.
Persian		گوشت/guşt	[guʃt]	'meat'
Polish[16]		gmin	[ɡmʲin̪]ⓘ	'plebs'	See Polish phonology
Portuguese[17]		língua	[ˈɫĩɡwɐ]	'tongue'	See Portuguese phonology
Punjabi		ਗਾਂ/gaa	[ɡɑ̃ː]	'cow'
Romanian[18]		gând	[ɡɨnd]	'thought'	See Romanian phonology
Russian[19]		голова/golova	[ɡəɫɐˈva]ⓘ	'head'	See Russian phonology
Serbo-Croatian[20]		гост / gost	[gȏ̞ːs̪t̪]	'guest'	See Serbo-Croatian phonology
Slovak		miazga	[ˈmjäzɡä]	'lymph'	See Slovak phonology
Slovene		gost	[ˈɡɔ̂s̪t̪]	'guest'	See Slovene phonology
Somali		gaabi	[ɡaːbi]	'to shorten'	See Somali phonology
Southern Min	Hokkien	我/góa	[ɡua˥˧]	'I'
Spanish[21]		gato	[ˈɡät̪o̞]	'cat'	See Spanish phonology
Swahili		giza	[ˈɡīzɑ]	'darkness'	See Swahili phonology
Swedish		god	[ɡuːd̪]	'tasty'	May be an approximant in casual speech. See Swedish phonology
Telugu		గచ్చు/gacu	[ɡat͡sːu]	'Floor'	contrasts with aspirated form (which is articulated as breathy consonant).
Turkish		salgın	[säɫˈɡɯn]	'epidemic'	See Turkish phonology
Ukrainian[22]		ґанок / ganok	[ˈɡɑn̪ok]	'porch'	See Ukrainian phonology
Welsh		gwyn	[ɡwɪn] or [ɡwɨ̞n]	'white'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		gasp	[ɡɔsp]	'buckle' (n.)	See West Frisian phonology
Wu	Shanghainese	狂/guaon6	[ɡuɑ̃23]	'crazy'
Xiang		共/wong	[ɡoŋ]	'together'
Yi		ꈨ / gge	[ɡɤ˧]	'hear'
Zapotec	Tilquiapan[23]	gan	[ɡaŋ]	'will be able'	Depending on speaker and carefulness of speech, [ɡ] may be lenited to [ɣ]

See also

• Index of phonetics articles
• Arabic letters specifically to create the phoneme /ɡ/ in loanwords:
  • ج
  • چ
  • غ
  • ق
  • ڨ
  • ك
  • ڭ
  • گ