Voiceless velar plosive

Uncommon card · No. 190258

A voiceless velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in almost all spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the "k" sound in "skip". The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨k⟩. A [k] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [k], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many languages also have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [k]. Only a few languages lack a voiceless velar plosive, e.g. North Azerbaijani, Tahitian, and Mongolian. Some languages have a voiceless pre-velar or post-palatal plosive, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as front as the prototypical palatal plosive. See Voiceless palatal plosive § Post-palatal for more information. Conversely, some languages have a voiceless post-velar plosive, which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation...

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