# Voiced velar plosive

The voiced velar plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages.
Some languages have the voiced pre-velar 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.
Conversely, some languages have the voiced post-velar plosive, which is articulated slightly behind the place of articulation of the prototypical velar plosive, though not as back as the prototypical uvular plosive.

## IPA symbol

The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɡ⟩, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called single-storey G , but the double-storey G is considered an acceptable alternative. The Unicode character U+0067 g LATIN SMALL LETTER G renders as either a single-storey G or a double-storey G depending on font; the character U+0261 ɡ LATIN SMALL LETTER SCRIPT G is always a single-storey G, but it is generally available only in fonts supporting the IPA Extensions Unicode character block.

## Features

Features of the voiced velar stop:
* Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no nasal outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely, and the consonant is a plosive.
* Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
* Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation.
* 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.
* Its airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles, as in most sounds.

## Varieties

| IPA | Description |
| ɡ | plain ɡ |
| ɡʱ | breathy ɡ |
| ɡʲ | palatalized ɡ |
| ɡʷ | labialized ɡ |
| ɡ̚ | ɡ with no audible release |
| ɡ̥ | voiceless ɡ |
| ɡ͈ | tense ɡ |

## Occurrence

Of the six stops that would be expected from the most common pattern worldwide—that is, three places of articulation plus voicing ([p b, t d, k ɡ])—[p] and [ɡ] are the most frequently missing, being absent in about 10% of languages that otherwise have this pattern. Absent stop [p] is an areal feature (see also Voiceless bilabial stop). Missing [ɡ], (when the language uses voicing to contrast stops) on the other hand, is widely scattered around the world, for example /ɡ/ is not a native phoneme of Belarusian, Dutch, Czech, or Slovak and occurs only in borrowed words in those languages. A few languages, such as Modern Standard Arabic and part of the Levantine dialects (e.g. Lebanese and Syrian), are missing both, although most Modern Arabic dialects have /ɡ/ in their native phonemic systems as a reflex of ⟨ق⟩ or less commonly of ⟨ج⟩.
It seems that [ɡ] is somewhat more difficult to articulate than the other basic stops. Ian Maddieson speculates that this may be due to a physical difficulty in voicing velars: Voicing requires that air flow into the mouth cavity, and the relatively small space allowed by the position of velar consonants means that it will fill up with air quickly, making voicing difficult to maintain in [ɡ] for as long as it is in [d] or [b]. This could have two effects: [ɡ] and [k] might become confused, and the distinction is lost, or perhaps a [ɡ] never develops when a language first starts making voicing distinctions. With uvulars, where there is even less space between the glottis and tongue for airflow, the imbalance is more extreme: Voiced [ɢ] is much rarer than voiceless [q].
In many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, plain [g] and aspirated [g$^h$] are in contrastive distribution.
| Language | Language | Word | IPA | Meaning | Notes |
| Abkhaz | Abkhaz | ажыга/ažëga | [aˈʐəɡa] | 'shovel' | See Abkhaz phonology |
| Adyghe | Shapsug | гьэгуалъэ/gägwaĺa | | 'toy' | Dialectal. Corresponds to [d͡ʒ] in other dialects. |
| Adyghe | Temirgoy | чъыгы/ čëgë | | 'tree' | Dialectal. Corresponds to [ɣ] in other dialects. |
| Albanian | Albanian | gomar | [ˈɡomaɾ] | 'donkey' | |
| Arabic | Moroccan | أݣادير‎/'agaadiir | [ʔaɡaːdiːr] | 'Agadir' | |
| Arabic | Tunisian | ڨفصة‎‎/gafs'a | | 'Gafsa' | ⟨ڨ⟩ is also used in Algeria |
| Arabic | Hejazi | قمر/gamar | [ɡamar] | 'moon' | Corresponds to [q] in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. |
| Arabic | Najdi | قمر/gamar | [ɡəmar] | 'moon' | Corresponds to [q] in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. |
| Arabic | Sa'idi | قمر/gamar | [ɡɑmɑr] | 'moon' | Corresponds to [q] in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. |
| Arabic | Yemeni | قال/gääl | [gæːl] | '(he) said' | Pronunciation of ⟨ق⟩ in San'ani dialect in the North and Center and Hadhrami in the East |
| Arabic | Yemeni | جمل/gämäl | [gæmæl] | 'camel' | Pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in Ta'izzi-Adeni dialects in the South and Tihami in the West |
| Arabic | Egyptian | راجل/raagel | [ˈɾɑːɡel] | 'man' | Standard pronunciation of ⟨ج⟩ in Egypt and corresponds to /dʒ/, /ʒ/ or /ɟ/ in other pronunciations. |
| Armenian | Eastern | գանձ/gandz | | 'treasure' | |
| Assyrian | Assyrian | ܓܢܐ ɡana | [ɡaːna] | 'self' | Used predominantly in Urban Koine. Corresponds to [dʒ] in Urmia, some Tyari and Jilu dialects. |
| Azerbaijani | Azerbaijani | qara | [ɡɑɾɑ] | 'black' | |
| Basque | Basque | galdu | [ɡaldu] | 'lose' | |
| Bengali | Bengali | গান/gan | [ɡan] | 'song' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Bengali phonology |
| Bulgarian | Bulgarian | гора/gora | [ɡora] | 'forest' | See Bulgarian phonology |
| Catalan | Catalan | guant | [ˈɡwan̪(t̪)] | 'glove' | See Catalan phonology |
| Chechen | Chechen | говр/gowr | [ɡɔʊ̯r] | 'horse' | |
| Czech | Czech | gram | [ɡram] | 'gram' | See Czech phonology |
| Danish | Standard | lykke | [ˈløɡə] | 'happiness' | Only partially voiced; possible allophone of /ɡ/ in the intervocalic position. More often voiceless [k]. See Danish phonology |
| Dutch | All dialects | zakdoek | | 'tissue' | Allophone of /k/, occurring only before voiced consonants in native words. See Dutch phonology |
| Dutch | Standard | zakdoek | | 'tissue' | Allophone of /k/, occurring only before voiced consonants in native words. See Dutch phonology |
| Dutch | Many speakers | goal | | 'goal' | Only in loanwords. Some speakers may realize it as [ɣ] ~ [ʝ] ~ [χ] ~ [x] (like a normal Dutch ⟨g⟩), or as [k]. |
| Dutch | Amelands | goëd | [ɡuə̯d] | 'good' | |
| English | English | gaggle | [ˈɡæɡɫ̩] | 'gaggle' | See English phonology |
| Filipino | Filipino | gulo | [ɡulɔ] | 'commotion' | |
| French | French | gain | [ɡɛ̃] | 'earnings' | See French phonology |
| Georgian | Georgian | გული/guli | [ˈɡuli] | 'heart' | |
| German | German | Lüge | [ˈlyːɡə] | 'lie' | See Standard German phonology |
| Greek | Greek | γκάρισμα / gkárisma | [ˈɡɐɾizmɐ] | 'donkey's bray' | See Modern Greek phonology |
| Gujarati | Gujarati | ગાવું/gávu | [gaːʋʊ̃] | 'to sing' | See Gujarati phonology |
| Hebrew | Hebrew | גב/gav | [ɡav] | 'back' | See Modern Hebrew phonology |
| Hindustani | Hindustani | गाना/gáná / gáná/گانا | [ɡɑːnɑː] | 'song' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Hindustani phonology |
| Hungarian | Hungarian | engedély | [ɛŋɡɛdeːj] | 'permission' | See Hungarian phonology |
| Irish | Irish | gaineamh | [ˈɡanʲəw] | 'sand' | See Irish phonology |
| Italian | Italian | gare | [ˈɡäːre] | 'competitions' | [g] is represented by letter G when followed by vowels [a], [o] [u], while when in front of vowels [i], [e] and [ɛ], the pronunciation changes to d͡ʒ, for the phoneme [g] to appear on the vowels [i], [e] and [ɛ], the GH digraph is used. |
| Japanese | Japanese | 外套 / gaito | [ɡaitoː] | 'overcoat' | See Japanese phonology |
| Kabardian | Baslaney | гьанэ/ gäna | | 'shirt' | Dialectal. Corresponds to [dʒ] in other dialects. |
| Kagayanen | Kagayanen | kalag | [kað̞aɡ] | 'spirit' | |
| Khmer | Khmer | ហ្គាស / gas | [gaːh] | 'gas' | See Khmer phonology |
| Korean | Korean | 메기 / megi | [meɡi] | 'catfish' | See Korean phonology |
| Limburgish | Limburgish | zegke | [zεgə] | 'say' | Common. Example from the Weert dialect. |
| Lithuanian | Lithuanian | garai | [ɡɐrɐɪ̯ˑ] | 'steam' | See Lithuanian phonology |
| Luxembourgish | Luxembourgish | agepack | [ˈɑɡəpaːk] | 'gone about' | More often voiceless [k]. See Luxembourgish phonology |
| Macedonian | Macedonian | гром/grom | [ɡrɔm] | 'thunder' | See Macedonian phonology |
| Malay | Malay | guni | [ɡuni] | 'sack' | |
| Marathi | Marathi | गवत/gëvët | [ɡəʋət] | 'grass' | See Marathi phonology |
| Nepali | Nepali | गाउँ | [ɡä̃ũ̯] | 'village' | Contrasts with aspirated form. See Nepali phonology |
| Norwegian | Norwegian | gull | [ɡʉl] | 'gold' | See Norwegian phonology |
| Odia | Odia | ଗଛ/gočho | [ɡɔtʃʰɔ] | 'tree' | Contrasts with aspirated form. |
| Persian | Persian | گوشت/guşt | [guʃt] | 'meat' | |
| Polish | Polish | gmin | | 'plebs' | See Polish phonology |
| Portuguese | Portuguese | língua | [ˈɫĩɡwɐ] | 'tongue' | See Portuguese phonology |
| Punjabi | Punjabi | ਗਾਂ/gaa | [ɡɑ̃ː] | 'cow' | |
| Romanian | Romanian | gând | [ɡɨnd] | 'thought' | See Romanian phonology |
| Russian | Russian | голова/golova | | 'head' | See Russian phonology |
| Serbo-Croatian | Serbo-Croatian | гост / gost | [gȏ̞ːs̪t̪] | 'guest' | See Serbo-Croatian phonology |
| Slovak | Slovak | miazga | [ˈmjäzɡä] | 'lymph' | See Slovak phonology |
| Slovene | Slovene | gost | [ˈɡɔ̂s̪t̪] | 'guest' | See Slovene phonology |
| Somali | Somali | gaabi | [ɡaːbi] | 'to shorten' | See Somali phonology |
| Southern Min | Hokkien | 我/góa | [ɡua˥˧] | 'I' | |
| Spanish | Spanish | gato | [ˈɡät̪o̞] | 'cat' | See Spanish phonology |
| Swahili | Swahili | giza | [ˈɡīzɑ] | 'darkness' | See Swahili phonology |
| Swedish | Swedish | god | [ɡuːd̪] | 'tasty' | May be an approximant in casual speech. See Swedish phonology |
| Telugu | Telugu | గచ్చు/gacu | [ɡat͡sːu] | 'Floor' | contrasts with aspirated form (which is articulated as breathy consonant). |
| Turkish | Turkish | salgın | [säɫˈɡɯn] | 'epidemic' | See Turkish phonology |
| Ukrainian | Ukrainian | ґанок / ganok | [ˈɡɑn̪ok] | 'porch' | See Ukrainian phonology |
| Welsh | Welsh | gwyn | [ɡwɪn] or [ɡwɨ̞n] | 'white' | See Welsh phonology |
| West Frisian | West Frisian | gasp | [ɡɔsp] | 'buckle' (n.) | See West Frisian phonology |
| Wu | Shanghainese | 狂/guaon$^6$ | [ɡuɑ̃$^{23}$] | 'crazy' | |
| Xiang | Xiang | 共/wong | [ɡoŋ] | 'together' | |
| Yi | Yi | ꈨ / gge | [ɡɤ˧] | 'hear' | |
| Zapotec | Tilquiapan | gan | [ɡaŋ] | 'will be able' | Depending on speaker and carefulness of speech, [ɡ] may be lenited to [ɣ] |