Non English Consonants: Part IV

Eric Armstrong

16 Non English Consonants: Part IV

Uvulars

The Uvular place is right behind the velar place, on the little “punching bag” hanging down from the back of your soft palate. There are 5 uvular consonants, starting with the uvular srops /q, ɢ/, which are similar to the English /k, g/ sounds, but made a little further back in the mouth. The uvular nasal /ɴ/, feels a lot like the velar nasal /ŋ/, aɡain, just a bit further back, on what the Romans called the uvula, or “little grape.” The uvular trill /ʀ/ is associated with Parisian French, and Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman purr. And finally, the 2 uvular fricatives, /χ, ʁ/ gently grind the uvula to make a rough friction-y sound at the back of the mouth.

Lowercase Q: [q]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[q]	Lowercase Q	Make a lowercase <q>, with a simple, non-looping descender.
	The Sound & the Action: Lowercase Q [q] is a voiced uvular plosive sound, which is articulated with the back of the tongue positioned on the uvula. Begin to produce the [q] sound with partially opened lips, with the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth and the back of your tongue touching the uvula to stop the voiced airstream, with the soft palate lifted, like a /k/ articulated very far back. The air pressure is then released forward by “exploding” the tongue from its initial position. The sound is produced in the back of the mouth and does not requires the onset of voice. View an MRI of [q] ^[1]
	Linguistic Term: Voiceless uvular stop (plosive).
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Multicultural London English cut [qʌt] “cut” Non-local Dublin English back [bɑq] “back” Hebrew Biblical קול/qol [qol] “voice” Inuktitut Iqaluit ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ [iqaluit], capital city of Nunavut, lit. “place of many fish” Somali qaab [qaːb] “shape” Uyghur ئاق/aq [ɑq] “white” Yup’ik meq [məq] “fresh water”

Small Cap G: [ɢ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ɢ]	Small Cap G	Write the uppercase <G> but start as if you were writing a lowercase <c>, and then put the classic upside-down uppercase L on the end of it.
	The Sound & the Action: Small Cap G [ɢ] is a voiced uvular plosive consonant which is articulated with the back of the tongue positioned on the uvula. Begin to produce the [ɢ] sound with partially opened lips, with the back of your tongue pressing up against the uvula to stop the airstream, with the soft palate lifted. The airstream is then released forward by “exploding” the tongue from its initial position. The sound is produced in the back of the mouth and requires the onset of voice. View an MRI of [ɢ] ^[2]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced uvular plosive.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Sudanese Arabic بقرة [bɑɢɑrɑ] “cow” Mongolian Монгол ᠮᠣᠩᠭᠣᠯ [mɔɴɢɔ̆ɮ] “Mongolian” Iranian Persian قهوه [ɢæhˈve] “coffee” Tlingit ghooch [ɢuːt͡ʃʰ] “hill” Turkmen gar [ɢɑɾ] “snow”

Small Cap N: [ɴ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ɴ]	Small Cap N	Make a small capital <N>, starting at the midpoint to create a glyph that is the height of a standard lowercase <x>.
	The Sound & the Action: Small Cap N [ɴ] is a voiced, uvular nasal consonant which is articulated with the back of the tongue on the uvula. Begin to produce the [ɴ] sound with partially opened lips, with the back of your tongue on the uvula to completely close off the oral cavity, with the soft palate dropped to allow the voiced sound to travel out through the nasal passages. The sound is produced in the nose and requires the onset of voice. Frequently the sound is used as an allophone of /n/ before other uvular consonants such as /q, ɢ, χ, ʁ/. View an MRI of [ɴ] ^[3]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced uvular nasal.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Afrikaans aangenaam [ˈɑːɴχənɑːm] “pleasant” Standard Arabic انقلاب/inqilāb [ˌɪɴ.qɪˈlaːb] “coup” Inuvialuktun namunganmun [namuŋaɴmuɴ] “to where?” Mongolian монгол/mongol [ˈmɔɴ.ɢəɮ] “Mongolia” Spanish enjuto [ẽ̞ɴˈχuto̞] “shriveled” Turkmen jaň [dʒɑɴ] “bell”

Small Cap R: [ʀ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ʀ]	Small Cap R	Write a small capital <R> starting at the midpoint so you create a tiny glyph the height of a lowercase <x>.
	The Sound & the Action: Small Cap R [ʀ] is a voiced, uvular trill sound, which is articulated with the back of the tongue on the uvula. Begin to produce the [ʀ] sound with partially opened lips, with the back of your tongue on the uvula, as if you’re laying your uvula on the back of your tongue. As the voice airstream flows outward, the uvula bounces on the back of the tongue. The vocal tract merely sets up the positioning of the uvula—the airstream does the work! The sound is produced by the rapid vibrations between your tongue and the uvula and it requires the onset of voice.  Frequently reduces down to the voiceless uvular fricative, [ʁ], in some languages. View an MRI of [ʀ] ^[4]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced uvular trill.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): North Mesopotamian Arabic قمر [ˈqʌmʌʀ] “moon” French rendez-vous [ʀɑ̃devu] “rendezvous”, “appointment” Standard German rot [ʀoːt] “red” Sioux Lakota ǧí [ʀí] “it’s brown” Sotho (Regional variant) moriri [moʀiʀi] “hair” Southern Swedish räv [ʀɛːv] “fox”

Lowercase Chi: [χ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[χ]	Lowercase Chi [kaɪ̯]	The lowercase Chi starts where you’d write a lowercase <v>, but when you get to the baseline, you just keep on going. Then you go to the top right of the symbol and cross back over the first line, making what looks like an uppercase X but with the crossing point sitting on the baseline, and the lower half of the symbol below it. Note that there is a slight bend in the first stroke of the χ glyph about halfway from the start of the stroke and the crossing point.
	The Sound & the Action: Lowercase Chi [χ] is a voiced uvular fricative which is articulated with the back of the tongue on the uvular. Begin to produce the [χ] sound with partially opened lips, with the back of your tongue (almost) on the uvula—it may feel pretty much closed off. The air flow is then released, and fricative turbulence is created in the narrow space between the back of the tongue and the uvula. The sound is unvoiced. Sometimes used as an allophone of /r/ [ʁ] following voiceless plosives, as in <pr-, tr-, kr-> where /pʁ-, tʁ-, kʁ-/ devoice to [pχ-, tχ-, kχ-]. View an MRI of [χ] ^[5]
	Linguistic Term: Voiceless uvular fricative.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Standard Danish pres [ˈpχæs] “pressure” Scouse English clock [kl̥ɒχ] “clock” French très [t̪χɛ] “very” Tlingit –dáx̱ [dáχ] “from, out of” Welsh chwech [χweːχ] “six”

Flipped Small Cap R: [ʁ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ʁ]	Flipped Small Cap R	Write a smaller than normal lowercase b, and then kick the leg up into the air as if you were writing the top part of the right side of a <k>.
	The Sound & the Action: Flipped Small Cap R [ʁ] is a voiced, uvular fricative which is articulated with the back of the tongue on the uvula. Begin to produce the [ʁ] sound with partially opened lips, with the back of your tongue (almost) on the uvula—it may feel pretty much closed off. The voiced airflow is then released, and fricative turbulence is created in the narrow space between the back of the tongue and the uvula. The sound is voiced and the soft palate is raised to prevent the sound from going out the nasal passages. View an MRI of [ʁ] ^[6]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced uvular fricative.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Chilcotin relkɨsh [ʁəlkɪʃ] “he walks” Dutch rad [ʁɑt] “wheel” French Paris [paʁi] “Paris” East Inuktitut marruuk [mɑʁːuːk] “two” Lakota aǧúyapi [aʁʊjapɪ] “bread” European Portugese carro [ˈkaʁu] “car”

Pharyngeal

The Pharyngeal place is home to two consonant sounds on the pulmonic consonant chart of the ipa, both of which are pharyngeal fricatives /ħ, ʕ/. These sounds are made with the very back surface of the tongue root in contact with the back pharyngeal wall. The Animations, based on MRI imaging at Seeing Speech are most helpful for getting a mental model of what is going on.

Barred Lowercase H: [ħ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ħ]	Barred Lowercase H or H-Bar	Write a lowercase <h> and then cross it, like you’re making a lowercase <t>.
	The Sound & the Action: Barred Lowercase H [ħ] is a voiced uvular fricative which is articulated with the back of the tongue on the uvula. To produce the [ħ] sound, open your lips, with the very back of your tongue on the back wall of your throat, your pharynx, so there’s a tiny space for air to pass through. As you exhale, turbulence makes a voiceless fricative sound, a bit like you’re preparing to “hock a loogie”. Its symbol comes from the H-bar in Maltese orthography, where it represents this sound. In some languages it is an allophone of /g/, or /χ/. View an MRI of [ħ] ^[7]
	Linguistic Term: Voiceless pharyngeal fricative.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Arabic ḥal [ħaːl] “situation” RP English horrible [ħɒɹɪbɫ̩] “horrible” Hebrew Mizrahi חַשְׁמַל/ḥašmal [ħaʃˈmal] “electricity” Standard Maltese wieħed [wiːħet] “one” Nakota Sioux haxdanahâ [haħdanahã] “yesterday” Somali xood/حٗـود [ħoːd] “cane”

Reversed Glottal Stop: [ʕ]

Symbol	Name	Notes
[ʕ]	Reversed Glottal Stop or Dotless Reversed Question Mark	Begin writing an uppercase <S>, and when you get halfway done, turn downward and head straight for the baseline. OR draw a backwards question mark with no dot!
	The Sound & the Action: Reversed Glottal Stop [ʕ] is a voiced pharyngeal fricative which is articulated with the very back of the tongue root on the back wall of the pharynx. To produce the [ʕ] sound open your lips, with the very back of your tongue on the back wall of your throat, your pharynx so there’s a tiny space for air to pass through. As you voice the sound, turbulence makes a voiced fricative sound, a bit like you’re preparing to “hock a loogie” while voicing. It is sometimes used as an allophone for /r/ or /h/. View an MRI of [ʕ] ^[8]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced pharyngeal fricative.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Arabic اَلْـعَـرَبِيَّةُ/al-ʽarabiyya [alʕaraˈbijːa] “Arabic” Chechen Ӏан/jan/عـآن [ʕan] “winter” Iraqi Hebrew עִבְרִית/ʿivrît [ʕibˈriːθ] “Hebrew language” Okanagan ʕaymt [ʕajmt] “angry” Stoney Sioux marazhud [maʕazud] “rain” Ukranian голос [ˈʕɔlos] “voice”

Glottal

The Glottal place is not unknown to us—that’s where the voiceless glottal stop /ʔ/ lives, and where the voiceless glottal fricative /h/ is found on the chart, though that’s a bit of a misnomer, as /h/ is articulated wherever the following vowel is shaped. There’s really only one other glottal consonant to meet, and that’s the (semi-) voiced glottal fricative /ɦ/, represented by the Hook-top H, which only occurs between two vowels. More on that below…

Hook-top H: [ɦ]

Symbol	Spelled	As in…	Name	Notes
[ɦ]	VhV	ahead	Hook-top H	Begin as if you were starting to wrote the Esh symbol, /ʃ/. When you get to the baseline, head back up and create the “hump” that finishes the regular <h> glyph.
	The Sound & the Action: Hook-top H [ɦ] is a voiced glottal “fricative” which is articulated with the shape of the vowel that follows the segment, but there’s no real friction at that place. Its phonation quality is breathy voiced, so it’s as if there is friction in the vocal folds, which are tense but not fully vibrating, making a chaotic, white-noise style sound. Here, let’s imagine making this sound between two open back unrounded vowels, /a/, so [ɑˈɦɑ]. Begin to produce the first [ɑ] with the lips and jaw open, with your tongue lying in the bottom of your mouth. Then switch to breathy voice for the [ɦ] sound as if you were whispering the [ɑ] vowel. Finally, re-engage the full phonation for the final [ɑ]. View an MRI of [ɦ] ^[9]
	Linguistic Term: Voiced glottal fricative.
	Examples (from Wikipedia): Estonian & Finnish raha [ˈrɑɦɑ] “money” Hungarian tehát [tɛɦaːt] “so” Japanese 少し話して/sukoshi hanashite [sɯkoɕi ɦanaɕi̥te] “speak a little bit” Indonesian bahan [baˈɦan] “ingredients” Korean 여행 / yeohaeng [jʌɦεŋ] “travel” Zulu ihhashi [iːˈɦaːʃi] “horse”

The Consonant Chart (Pulmonic) Drag and Drop Activity

MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiceless uvular plosive. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=113 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced uvular plosive. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=610 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced uvular nasal. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=628 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced uvular trill. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=640 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiceless uvular fricative. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=967 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced uvular fricative. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=641 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiceless pharyngeal fricative. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=295 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced pharyngeal fricative. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=661 ↵
MRI 2. Janet Beck. Voiced glottal fricative. Seeing Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 2018. Web. 21 August 2024. https://seeingspeech.ac.uk/ipa-charts/?chart=1&datatype=4&speaker=1#location=614 ↵