Uvular stop

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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

Standard Arabic) in words such as Quran (Koran), Qatar, and Al-Qahira
(Arabic for Cairo). More generally, several kinds are distinguished: