Velar consonant

The velar consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:

The only languages recorded to lack velars (and any dorsal consonant at all) may be Xavante, standard Tahitian (though /tVt/ is pronounced [kVt], a pattern also found in the Niihau dialect of Hawaiian), and arguably several Skou languages (Wutung, the Dumo dialect of Vanimo, and Bobe), which have a coda {{IPA|[ŋ]}} that has been analyzed as the realization of nasal vowels. In Pirahã, men may lack the only velar consonant.

Other languages lack simple velars. An areal feature of the indigenous languages of the Americas of the coastal regions of the Pacific Northwest is that historical *k was palatalized. When such sounds remained stops, they were transcribed {{angbr IPA|kʸ}} in Americanist phonetic notation, presumably corresponding to IPA {{angbr IPA|c}}, but in others, such as the Saanich dialect of Coastal Salish, Salish-Spokane-Kalispel, and Chemakum, *k went further and affricated to {{IPA|[tʃ]}}. Likewise, historical *k’ has become {{IPA|[tʃʼ]}} and historical *x has become {{IPA|[ʃ]}}; there was no *g or *ŋ. In the Northwest Caucasian languages, historical *{{IPA|[k]}} has also become palatalized, becoming {{IPA|/kʲ/}} in Ubykh and {{IPA|/tʃ/}} in most Circassian varieties. In both regions the languages retain a labialized velar series (e.g. {{IPA|[kʷ], [kʼʷ], [gʷ], [xʷ], [w]}} in the North Caucasus) as well as uvular consonants.Viacheslav A. Chirikba, 1996, Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology, p. 192. Research School CNWS: Leiden. In the languages of those families that retain plain velars, both the plain and labialized velars are pre-velar, perhaps to make them more distinct from the uvulars which may be post-velar. Prevelar consonants are susceptible to palatalization. A similar system, contrasting {{IPA|*kʲ}} with {{IPA|*kʷ}} and leaving {{IPA|*k}} marginal at best, is reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European.

Apart from the voiceless plosive {{IPA|[k]}}, no other velar consonant is particularly common, even the {{IPA|[w]}} and {{IPA|[ŋ]}} that occur in English. There can be no phoneme {{IPA|/ɡ/}} in a language that lacks voiced stops, like Mandarin Chinese,{{efn|What is written g in pinyin is {{IPA|/k/}}, though that sound does have an allophone {{IPA|[ɡ]}} in atonic syllables.}} but it is sporadically missing elsewhere. Of the languages surveyed in the World Atlas of Language Structures, about 10% of languages that otherwise have {{IPA|/p b t d k/}} are missing {{IPA|/ɡ/}}.[http://wals.info/feature/5 The World Atlas of Language Structures Online:Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems]

Pirahã has both a {{IPA|[k]}} and a {{IPA|[ɡ]}} phonetically. However, the {{IPA|[k]}} does not behave as other consonants, and the argument has been made that it is phonemically {{IPA|/hi/}}, leaving Pirahã with only {{IPA|/ɡ/}} as an underlyingly velar consonant.

Hawaiian does not distinguish {{IPA|[k]}} from {{IPA|[t]}}; {{angbr|k}} tends toward {{IPA|[k]}} at the beginning of utterances, {{IPA|[t]}} before {{IPA|[i]}}, and is variable elsewhere, especially in the dialect of Ni{{okina}}ihau and Kaua{{okina}}i. Since Hawaiian has no {{IPA|[ŋ]}}, and {{angbr|w}} varies between {{IPA|[w]}} and {{IPA|[v]}}, it is not clearly meaningful to say that Hawaiian has phonemic velar consonants.

Several Khoisan languages have limited numbers or distributions of pulmonic velar consonants. (Their click consonants are articulated in the uvular or possibly velar region, but that occlusion is part of the airstream mechanism rather than the place of articulation of the consonant.) Khoekhoe, for example, does not allow velars in medial or final position, but in Juǀʼhoan velars are rare even in initial position.

Normal velar consonants are dorso-velar: The dorsum (body) of the tongue rises to contact the velum (soft palate) of the roof of the mouth. In disordered speech there are also velo-dorsal stops, with the opposite articulation: The velum lowers to contact the tongue, which remains static. In the extensions to the IPA for disordered speech, these are transcribed by reversing the IPA letter for a velar consonant, e.g. {{angbr IPA|𝼃}} for a voiceless velodorsal stop,{{efn|The old letter for a back-released velar click, turned-k {{angbr IPA|ʞ}}, was used from 2008 to 2015.}} {{angbr IPA|𝼁}} for voiced, and {{angbr IPA|𝼇}} for a nasal.

• Velarization
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Category:Place of articulation