gutturalen

Gutturalen is a term used in linguistics to refer to a broad class of consonant sounds produced in the throat, rather than at the front of the mouth. The concept is historical and varies in scope across traditions; in some descriptions, gutturals include glottal, pharyngeal, and uvular articulations, and sometimes epiglottal or certain back-velar sounds, depending on the author. The unifying idea is that the primary constriction or a significant part of the sound’s shaping involves the throat area.

In practice, gutturals encompass several distinct places of articulation. Glottal sounds are produced at the glottis, such as the glottal stop [ʔ] and the glottal fricative [h]. Pharyngeals involve the pharyngeal constriction, as in [ħ] and [ʕ]. Uvulars use the back of the tongue against the uvula, including sounds like [q], [χ], and [ʁ]. Some languages also feature epiglottal sounds, which are sometimes grouped with gutturals in older literature. Because of this variety, the exact inventory labeled as “guttural” differs by language and tradition.

The term is less common in precise contemporary phonetics, where researchers prefer explicit place-of-articulation labels (glottal, pharyngeal, uvular, etc.). Nonetheless, gutturals remain a useful umbrella in historical descriptions and in discussions of languages with prominent throat-based consonants. See also phonetics, consonant, glottal, pharyngeal, uvular, epiglottal.