Uvular stop
In
stop consonant
).
Uvular stops are acoustically similar to but less common than the
Caucasian languages and the Pacific Northwest languages of North America
. However, they are unattested in the European languages (outside of a few peripheral areas such as the Caucasus).
The most common sound is the voiceless stop [q]. This sound is well known in
(Arabic for Cairo). More generally, several kinds are distinguished:- [q], voiceless uvular plosive
- [ɢ], voiced uvular plosive
- [ɴ], uvular nasal
- [qʼ], uvular ejective
- [ʛ ], voiced uvular implosive (very rare)
- [ʛ̊ ] or [qʼ↓] voiceless uvular implosive (claimed to exist in Kaqchikel)