Velar ejective stop

"Kʼ" redirects here. For Greenlandic letter, see Kra (letter).

Velar ejective stop
kʼ
IPA Number	109 + 401
Audio sample
source · help
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	k​ʼ
Unicode (hex)	U+006B U+02BC
X-SAMPA	k_>
Image

The velar ejective is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨kʼ⟩.

Features

Features of the velar ejective:

• Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
• Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Occurrence

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		акы	[akʼə]	'one'
Adyghe	Temirgoy	шкӏэ	[ʃkʼa]ⓘ	'calf'
	Shapsug	кӏьэ	[kʲʼa]ⓘ	'tail'	Palatalized. Corresponds to [t͡ʃʼ] in other dialects.
Archi		кIан	[kʼan]	'bottom'
Armenian	Yerevan dialect	կեղծ	[kʼɛʁt͡sʼ]	'false'	Corresponds to tenuis [k⁼] in other Eastern dialects.
English	Non-local Dublin	back	[bakʼ]	'back'	Allophone of /k/ for some speakers.
	Northern English				Pre-pausal allophone of /k/ for some speakers; may be somewhat palatalised. See English phonology
	Southern English
	Scottish				Occasional word-final allophone of /k/.
Georgian		კაბა	[kʼaba]	'dress'
Haida		ttsanskkaagid	[tsʼanskʼaːkit]	'beams'
Hausa		[[[Hausa_language#Writing_systems|ƙoƙari]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[kʼòːkʼɐ̄ɾī]	'effort'
Kabardian	Baslaney	кӏьапсэ	[kʲʼaːpsa]ⓘ	'rope'	Palatalized. Corresponds to [t͡ʃʼ] in other dialects.
Lezgian		кIир	[kʼir]	'fang'
Ossetian	Iron	къона	[ˈkʼonä]	'hearth'
	Digoron	дзæкъолæ	[d͡zəˈkʼoɫə]	'bag'

See also

• List of phonetics topics

Bibliography

• Cruttenden, Alan, ed. (2008), Gimson's Pronunciation of English (7th ed.), London: Hodder, ISBN 0340958774
• Dum-Tragut, Jasmine (2009), Armenian: Modern Eastern Armenian, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Gimson, Alfred C. (1970), An Introduction to the pronunciation of English, London: Edward Arnold
• Gordeeva, Olga; Scobbie, James M. (2006), Phonetic Conditioning of Word-final Ejective Stops in the Speechfinal Ejective Stops in the Speech of Scottish English Pre-school Children (PDF), Edinburg: Speech Science Research Centre, Queen Margaret University College
• Wells, John C.; Colson, Greta (1971), Practical Phonetics, London: Pitman, ISBN 0-273-43949-9
• Wells, John C. (1982), Accents of English I: An Introduction, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29719-2