A voiced uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , an inverted small uppercase letter , or in broad transcription if rhotic. This consonant is one of the several collectively called guttural R when found in European languages.
A voiced uvular approximant is also found interchangeably with the fricative, and may also be transcribed as . Because the IPA symbol stands for the uvular fricative, the approximant may be specified by adding the downtack: , though some writingsSuch as . use a superscript , which is not an official IPA practice.
For a voiced pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiced velar fricative.
Features Features of a voiced uvular fricative:
In many languages it is closer to an approximant, however, and no language distinguishes the two at the uvular articulation.
Occurrence
In Western Europe, a uvular trill pronunciation of rhotic consonants spread from northern French to several dialects and registers of Basque,Grammar of Basque, page 30, José Ignacio Hualde, Jon Ortiz De Urbina, Walter de Gruyter, 2003 Catalan, Danish, Dutch, German, Judaeo-Spanish, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Swedish, some variants of Low Saxon,Ph Bloemhoff-de Bruijn, Anderhalve Eeuw Zwols Vocaalveranderingsprocessen in de periode 1838-1972. IJsselacademie (2012). and Yiddish. However, not all of them remain a uvular trill today. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is usually a velar fricative (, ), voiceless uvular fricative , or glottal transition (, ), except in southern Brazil, where alveolar and uvular trills as well as the voiced uvular fricative predominate. Because such uvular rhotics often do not contrast with alveolar ones, IPA transcriptions may often use to represent them for ease of typesetting. For more information, see guttural R.
note, "There is... a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates."
It is also present in most Turkic languages, except for Turkish, and in Caucasian languages. It may also occur as .
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Abkhaz / 'marten' See Abkhaz phonology Adyghe / / 'sun' Afrikaans Parts of the former Cape Province 'red' May be a trill instead. See Afrikaans phonologyAlbanianArbëresh Some Moresian accentsvëlla'brother'May be pronounced as a normal double l. Sometimes, the guttural r is present in words starting with g in some dialects. Aleut Atkan dialect 'to wash' Arabic Modern Standard / 'room' Mostly transcribed as , may be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect. See Arabic phonology Archi / 'croak' Pharyngealized. Armenian / 'rudder' Asturian 'cat'Allophone of . May be an approximant. See IPA/Astur-Leonese Avar / / 'cap'AzerbaijaniSouthern dialects such as in Maragha, Malekan, Binab, Ajab shir and Leylan counties of East Azerbaijan, and Chaharburj, Miyandoab alongside Baruq in West Azerbaijanyeralma / یئرآلما'potato'Unlike many of Turkic dialects that have solely adapted the pronunciation of <r> into a voiced alveolar trill, these dialects often use voiced uvular fricative or they might use close-mid back unrounded vowel almost entirely in their speeches as an equivalent of r. it also has to be noted that this is not the same as voiced velar fricative which is to be resembled with ğ. Bashkir / / 'nine' Basque Northern dialects 'gold' Catalan Northern 'to run' See Catalan phonology Chilcotin 'he walks' Danish Standard 'red' Most often an approximant when initial. In other positions, it can be either a fricative (also described as voiceless ) or an approximant. Also described as pharyngeal . It can be a fricative trill in word-initial positions when emphasizing a word. See Danish phonology Dutch Belgian Limburg 'wheel' Either a fricative or an approximant. Realization of varies considerably among dialects. See Dutch phonology Central Netherlands East Flanders Northern Netherlands Randstad Southern Netherlands English Dyfed 'red' Not all speakers. Alveolar in other Welsh accents. Gwynedd North-east Leinster Corresponds to in other dialects of English in Ireland. Northumbrian Described both as a fricative and an approximant. More rarely it is a trill . Mostly found in rural areas of Northumberland and northern County Durham, declining. See English phonology and Northumbrian Burr. Sierra Leonean More rarely a trill . French 'to stay' See French phonology German Standard 'rust' Either a fricative or, more often, an approximant. In free variation with a uvular trill. See Standard German phonology Lower Rhine Swabian An approximant. It is the realization of in onsets, otherwise it is an epiglottal approximant. GondiHill-Maṛia 'to sing' Corresponds to or in other Gondi dialects. Hebrew Modern 'crow'See Modern Hebrew phonology.The pronunciation of the Modern Hebrew consonant ר resh has been described as a uvular approximant , specifically , which also exists in Yiddish, see Ghil'ad Zuckermann (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 261-262. Inuktitut East Inuktitut dialect 'two' Italian Some speakers 'rare' Rendition alternative to the standard Italian alveolar trill , due to individual orthoepic defects and/or regional variations that make the alternative sound more prevalent, notably in Alto Adige (bordering with German-speaking Austria), Val d'Aosta (bordering with France) and in parts of the Parma province, more markedly around Fidenza. Other alternative sounds may be a uvular trill or a labiodental approximant . See Italian phonology. Kabardian / / 'eagle' Kabyle / / 'to dive' Kazakh / / 'to you' Kyrgyz / / 'rain' Lakota 'bread' Luxembourgish 'Parmesan' Appears as an allophone of between a vowel and a voiced consonant and as an allophone of between a back vowel and another vowel (back or otherwise). A minority of speakers use it as the only consonantal variety of (in a complementary distribution with ), also where it is trilled in the standard language. See Luxembourgish phonologyMalayKedahramai راماي'many'Corresponds to prevocalic and intervocalic Standard Malay . Word-finally, Standard Malay corresponds to in Kedah Malay. See Kedah Malay Perak Perak ڤيراق 'Perak' See Malay phonology Malto पोग़े 'smoke' May be a stop instead. Minangkabau Kampar dialect boghe 'rice' Norwegian Southern dialects 'strange' Either an approximant or a fricative. See Norwegian phonology Southwestern dialectsToba qomTakshek dialectAwogoyk'moon'Tundra NenetsSome speakersвара'goose'OsseticIronæгъгъæд / æğğæd'enough' PortugueseEuropean 'car' Word-initial is commonly realized as a uvular trill [ʀ] in Lisbon. See Portuguese phonology Setubalense Rhotic consonants in the speech of three municipalities of Rio de Janeiro: Petrópolis, Itaperuna and Paraty . Page 11. 'to ruralize' Outcome of a merger of with , which is unique in the Lusophone world. Often trilled instead. Fluminense The process of Norm change for the good pronunciation of the Portuguese language in chant and dramatics in Brazil during 1938, 1858 and 2007 Page 36. 'burning feeling' Due to 19th century Portuguese influence, Rio de Janeiro's dialect merged coda into . The acoustic-articulatory path of the lateral palatal consonant's allophony. Pages 229 and 230. Often trilled. In free variation with , and before voiced sounds, , , and before voiceless consonants Sulista 'rice' SpanishPuerto Rican 'car' Word-initial, and inter-vocallic double r ('rr') are commonly realized as a fricative trill in rural sectors and generally (but not exclusively) lower socioeconomic strata among Puerto Ricans. . As spoken in Asturias'worm'Most common allophone of . May also be an approximant. Swedish Southern dialects 'pipe(s)' See Swedish phonology Tatar / / 'rain' Turkmen / 'heavy' An allophone of /ɣ/ next to back vowels Tsez агъи / aɣi 'bird' Ubykh 'his' Ubykh has ten different uvular fricatives. See Ubykh phonologyUyghur ئۇيغۇر / 'Uyghur' Uzbek / / 'heavy' Yakut / 'nine'Yi'twenty'A fricative or approximant.Yiddishרעגן'rain'See Yiddish phonologyZhuangroek'six'
See also Index of phonetics articles Guttural
Notes
References
External links