Uvulars

Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against the uvula, the fleshy projection hanging from the rear of the soft palate. The term derives from the uvula, and the class is part of the broader category of dorsal consonants, distinct from velars which are articulated with the tongue against the velum. The uvular region can produce several manners of articulation, including stops, fricatives, nasals, and a trill; in some languages an approximant or ejective uvular is also found.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, common uvulars include: stops such as the voiceless [q] and the voiced [ɢ]; fricatives such as the voiceless [χ] and the voiced [ʁ]; the uvular nasal [ɴ]; and the uvular trill [ʀ]. Some languages realize an uvular approximant, and ejective variants such as [qʼ] or [ɢʼ] occur in a minority of languages.

Uvulars occur worldwide and are particularly well represented in several language areas, including parts of Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and some regions of Europe and Asia. They often contrast with velars, which share a similar region of articulation but involve the tongue and the velum rather than the uvula. The inventory and phonetic realization of uvulars vary by language, with differences in voicing, aspiration, and the presence or absence of ejectives and other allophones.