Guttural

 ( Place Of Articulation ) 

Guttural speech sounds are those with a primary place of articulation near the back of the oral cavity, where it is difficult to distinguish a sound's place of articulation and its phonation. In popular usage it is an imprecise term for sounds produced relatively far back in the vocal tract, such as the German ch or the Arabic ayin, but not simple glottal sounds like h. The term 'guttural language' is used for languages that have such sounds.

As a technical term used by and , guttural has had various definitions. The concept always includes pharyngeal consonants, but may include velar consonant, uvular consonant or laryngeal consonants as well. Guttural sounds are typically , but breathy voice, pharyngealized, glottalization and may be also considered guttural in nature.

Some phonologists argue that all post-velar sounds constitute a natural class.Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins & John Esling (2021) Phonological potentials and the lower vocal tract

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Meaning and etymology The word guttural literally means 'of the throat' (from Latin guttur, meaning throat), and was first used by phoneticians to describe the Hebrew glottal (א) and (ה), uvular (ח), and pharyngeal (ע).See Oxford English Dictionary entry

The term is commonly used non-technically by English speakers - especially in America - to refer to sounds that subjectively appear harsh or grating. This definition usually includes a number of consonants that are not used in American English, such as epiglottal and , uvular , and , and velar fricatives and . However, it usually excludes sounds used in English, such as the velar stops and , the velar nasal , and the glottal consonants and .McCarthy, John J. 1989. 'Guttural Phonology', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.McCarthy, John J. Forthcoming. 'Guttural Transparency', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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Guttural languages In popular consciousness, that make extensive use of guttural consonants are often considered to be guttural languages. Some English language-speakers sometimes find such languages strange and even hard on the ear.Hayward, K. M. and Hayward, R. J. 1989. '"Guttural": Arguments for a New Distinctive Feature', Transactions of the Philological Society 87: 179-193.

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Examples of significant usage Languages that extensively use x, χ, ʁ, ɣ and/or q include:

• Afrikaans
• Arabic language
• Armenian
• Assamese
• SurethBeyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. .Sebastian Brock (2006). An Introduction to Syriac Studies. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. .
• AzerbaijaniShiraliyev, Mammadagha. The Baku Dialect. Azerbaijan SSR Academy of Sciences Publ.: Baku, 1957; p. 41
• Crimean Tatar
• Dutch languageFriedrich Maurer uses the term Istvaeones instead of Franconian; see Friedrich Maurer (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Bern: Verlag Francke.
• English language (some dialects including Scottish and Irish English)
• French language
• German languageFor a history of the German consonants see Fausto Cercignani, The Consonants of German: Synchrony and Diachrony, Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
• Greek language
• Hebrew language
• Hindustani (Hindi, Urdu)
• Irish language
• Lakota language
• Manx language
• Mongolian
• Kartvelian languages (i.e. Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz language, Svan language)Boeder (2002), p. 3Boeder (2005), p. 6Gamkrelidze (1966), p. 69Fähnrich & Sardzhveladze (2000)
• Kazakh language
• Kurdish
• Kyrgyz language
• Pashto language
• Persian languageLazard, Gilbert, "Pahlavi, Pârsi, dari: Les langues d'Iran d'apès Ibn al-Muqaffa" in R.N. Frye, Iran and Islam. In Memory of the late Vladimir Minorsky, Edinburgh University Press, 1971.
• Punjabi language
• Russian language
• Scots language
• Scottish GaelicBauer, Michael Blas na Gàidhlig - The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation (2011) Akerbeltz
• Sindhi language
• Spanish language
• Tajik language A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3
• Tswana language
• Turkmen language
• Uzbek language
• Uyghur language
• Welsh language

In addition to their usage of q, x, χ, ʁ and ɣ, these languages also have the pharyngeal consonants of ʕ and ħ:

• Berber languages (i.e. Kabyle language, Tamasheq)
• Cushitic languages (i.e. Somali language and Oromo language)Richard Hayward, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse, 2000, African Languages
• Turkish language dialects (as a result of borrowings from Arabic)
• Northeast Caucasian languages (i.e. Chechen language, Lezgian language, Avar language)
• Northwest Caucasian (i.e. Abkhaz language, Adyghe language, Kabardian).Nichols, J. 1997 Nikolaev and Starostin's North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary and the Methodology of Long-Range Comparison: an assessment Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Non-Slavic Languages (NSL) Conference, Chicago, 8–10 May 1997.Row 7 in
• Salishan and Wakashan language families in British Columbia
• Semitic languages (i.e. Arabic language, Sureth, Tigre language, Tigrinya, Turoyo language, Hebrew language, Ge’ez).

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Examples of partial usage In French language, the only truly guttural sound is (usually) a uvular fricative (or the guttural R). In Portuguese, is becoming dominant in urban areas. There is also a realization as a , and the original pronunciation as an also remains very common in various dialects.

In Russian language, is assimilated to the palatalization of the following velar consonant: лёгких . It also has a voiced allophone , which occurs before voiced obstruents. In Romanian, becomes the velar in word-final positions ( duh 'spirit') and before consonants ( hrean 'horseradish'). In Czech language, the phoneme followed by a voiced obstruent can be realized as either or , e.g. aby ch byl .Kučera, H. (1961). The Phonology of Czech. s’ Gravenhage: Mouton & Co.

In Kyrgyz language, the consonant phoneme has a uvular realisation () in back vowel contexts. In front-vowel environments, is fricativised between continuants to , and in back vowel environments both and fricativise to and respectively.Кызласов И. Л., Рунические письменности евразийских степей (Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, , with further bibliography. In Uyghur language, the phoneme occurs with a back vowel. In the Mongolian language, is usually followed by .

The Tuu languages and Juu languages (Khoisan) languages of southern Africa have large numbers of guttural vowels. These sounds share certain phonological behaviors that warrant the use of a term specifically for them. There are scattered reports of pharyngeals elsewhere, such as in the Nilo-Saharan, Tama language.

In Swabian German, a pharyngeal approximant is an allophone of in nucleus and coda positions. In onsets, it is pronounced as a uvular approximant. In Danish language, may have slight frication, and, according to , it may be a pharyngeal approximant . In Finnish language, a weak pharyngeal fricative is the realization of after the vowels or in syllable-coda position, e.g. tähti 'star'.

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See also

• Guttural R
• Laryngeal consonant

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Bibliography

• Ernest T. Abdel-Massih (1971). 9780932098054, University of Michigan. ISBN 9780932098054
• Bauer, Michael Blas na Gàidhlig - The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation (2011), Akerbeltz.
• Beyer, Klaus (1986). The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. .
• Matthias Brenzinger (2025). 9783110170498, Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110170498
• An Introduction to Syriac Studies. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. .
• Kyzlasov I.L. Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes, Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on,

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