Uvular ejective affricate

The uvular ejective affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is q͡χʼ. It is a phoneme in some Indigenous languages of the Americas such as Wintu. It was also a phoneme in the original version of the constructed language Ithkuil and is used allophonically in several Northeast Caucasian languages.

Features

Features of the uvular ejective affricate:

• Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.

• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.

• 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.

See also

• List of phonetic topics