Guttural

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).

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 .

Guttural languages

In popular consciousness, languages that make extensive use of guttural consonants are often considered to be guttural languages. Some English-speakers sometimes find such languages strange and even hard on the ear.

Examples of significant usage

Languages that extensively use [x], [χ], [ʁ], [ɣ] and/or [q] include:

• Afrikaans

• Arabic

• Armenian

• Assamese

• Assyrian

• Azerbaijani

• Crimean Tatar

• Dutch

• English (some dialects including Scottish and Irish English)

• French

• German

• Greek

• Hebrew

• Hindustani (Hindi, Urdu)

• Inuktitut

• Irish

• Lakota

• Mandarin Chinese

• Manx

• Mongolian

• Kartvelian languages (i.e. Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, Svan)

• Kazakh

• Kurdish

• Kyrgyz

• Pashto

• Persian

• Punjabi

• Russian

• Scots

• Scottish Gaelic

• Sindhi

• Spanish

• Tajik Persian

• Tswana

• Turkmen

• Uzbek

• Uyghur

• Welsh 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, Tamasheq)

• Cushitic languages (i.e. Somali and Oromo)

• Anatolian Turkish dialects (as a result of borrowings from Arabic)

• Northeast Caucasian languages (i.e. Chechen, Lezgian, Avar)

• Northwest Caucasian (i.e. Abkhaz, Adyghe, Kabardian).

• Salishan and Wakashan language families in British Columbia{{Cite book

• Semitic languages (i.e. Arabic, Sureth, Tigre, Tigrinya, Turoyo, Hebrew, Ge’ez)

Examples of partial usage

In French, 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, 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, the phoneme followed by a voiced obstruent can be realized as either or , e.g. abych byl .

In Kyrgyz, 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. In Uyghur, the phoneme occurs with a back vowel. In the Mongolian language, is usually followed by .

The Tuu and Juu (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, may have slight frication, and, according to , it may be a pharyngeal approximant . In Finnish, a weak pharyngeal fricative is the realization of after the vowels or in syllable-coda position, e.g. tähti 'star'.

References

Bibliography

• 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. .
• 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,

References

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2. (1996). "Phonetic Symbol Guide". University of Chicago Press.
3. Scott Moisik, Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins & John Esling (2021) Phonological potentials and the lower vocal tract
4. See [[Oxford English Dictionary]] entry
5. McCarthy, John J. 1989. 'Guttural Phonology', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
6. McCarthy, John J. Forthcoming. 'Guttural Transparency', ms., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
7. Hayward, K. M. and Hayward, R. J. 1989. '"Guttural": Arguments for a New Distinctive Feature', Transactions of the Philological Society 87: 179-193.
8. (5 December 2011). "John Wells's phonetic blog: velar or uvular?".
9. {{Harvcoltxt. Dum-Tragut. 2009
10. Beyer, Klaus (1986). ''The Aramaic language: its distribution and subdivisions''. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. {{ISBN. 3-525-53573-2.
11. [[Sebastian Brock. Brock, Sebastian]] (2006). ''An Introduction to Syriac Studies''. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. {{ISBN. 1-59333-349-8.
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13. {{Harvnb. Kavitskaya. 2010
14. Friedrich Maurer uses the term ''[[Istvaeones. Istvaeonic]]'' instead of Franconian; see Friedrich Maurer (1942), ''Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und frühdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde'', Bern: Verlag Francke.
15. For a history of the German consonants see [[Fausto Cercignani]], ''The Consonants of German: Synchrony and Diachrony'', Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
16. Boeder (2002), p. 3
17. Boeder (2005), p. 6
18. Gamkrelidze (1966), p. 69
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21. Lazard, 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.
22. Bauer, Michael ''Blas na Gàidhlig - The Practical Guide to Gaelic Pronunciation'' (2011) Akerbeltz {{ISBN. 978-1-907165-00-9
23. ''A Beginners' Guide to Tajiki'' by Azim Baizoyev and John Hayward, Routledge, London and New York, 2003, p. 3
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25. {{Harvcoltxt. Brenzinger. 2007
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35. 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.
36. Row 7 in. link
37. "First Nations Culture Areas Index". the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
38. Kaufman, Stephen. (1997). "The Semitic Languages". Routledge.
39. (2012). "A neglected phonetic law: The assimilation of pretonic yod to a following coronal in North-West Semitic". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
40. Аванесов, Р. И.. (1984). "Русское литературное произношение". Просвещение.
41. Ovidiu Drăghici. (October 2017). "Limba Română contemporană. Fonetică. Fonologie. Ortografie. Lexicologie".
42. Kučera, H. (1961). The Phonology of Czech. s’ Gravenhage: Mouton & Co.
43. Кызласов И. Л., ''Рунические письменности евразийских степей'' (Kyzlasov I.L. ''Runic scripts of Eurasian steppes''), Восточная литература (Eastern Literature), Moscow, 1994, pp. 80 on, {{ISBN. 5-02-017741-5, with further bibliography.
44. Anastasia Mukhanova Karlsson. "Vowels in Mongolian speech: deletions and epenthesis".
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46. {{Harvcoltxt. Ladefoged. Maddieson. 1996