Voiceless Velar Plosive Article Index for
Voiceless
 

Information About

Voiceless Velar Plosive




The voiceless velar plosive is a type of Consonant al sound used in many Spoken Language s. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k.

The sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [k , and some distinguish more than one variety. Many India n languages, such as Hindi , have a two-way contrast between Aspirated and plain [k].


FEATURES

Features of the voiceless velar plosive:



VARIETIES OF {LINK WITHOUT TITLE}



IN ENGLISH

In English , it is the sound denoted by the letter 'c' in ''cat'' or the letter 'k' in ''skin''. English has both aspirated and plain {Link without Title} , but they are Allophone s. It is commonly noted that the English letter 'c' is ambiguous, since its hard and soft sounds are represented by 'k' and 's', respectively.

When occurs at the beginning of a word or a Stressed Syllable , like in ''cry'', ''vacation'', or ''Korea'', then it is always aspirated. When it occurs at the beginning of an unstressed syllable that isn't at the beginning of a word, like in ''trafficking'', ''walker'', or ''typical'', then it is slightly aspirated or unaspirated. When [k occurs in a Consonant Cluster following like in ''sky'', ''scrape'', or ''whisker'', then it is always unaspirated. When it occurs at the end of a word, like in ''pack'', ''silk'', or ''whisk'', then it is usually unaspirated, and if the word is at the end of an Utterance , then the [k is often unreleased.


IN GEORGIAN

Georgian has aspirated and ejective {Link without Title} . They are distinct phonemes, not allophones. Aspirated k is spelled with ქ. Ejective k is spelled with კ.


IN GERMAN


In German , as in English, aspirated and plain {Link without Title} are allophones.


SEE ALSO