| Above: | Uvularized |
| Ipa Symbol: | ◌ʶ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | ◌ᵡ |
Uvularization or uvularisation is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the back of the tongue is constricted toward the uvula and upper pharynx during the articulation of a sound with its primary articulation elsewhere.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, uvularization can be indicated by the symbol pronounced as /⟨ʶ⟩/ (a superscript voiced uvular fricative (inverted small capital R)) after the letter standing for the consonant that is uvularized, as in pronounced as /[tʶ]/ (the uvularized equivalent of pronounced as /[t]/). The symbol pronounced as /⟨ᵡ⟩/ (a superscript voiceless uvular fricative) is sometimes used on voiceless consonants. This is specified in VoQS standards.
Uvularized consonants are often not distinguished from pharyngealized consonants, and they may be transcribed as if they were pharyngealized.
In Arabic and several other Semitic and Berber languages, uvularization is the defining characteristic of the series of "emphatic" coronal consonants.[1] [2]
Uvularized consonants in standard Arabic are pronounced as //sʶ//, pronounced as //dʶ//, pronounced as //tʶ//, pronounced as //ðʶ//, pronounced as //lʶ//. Regionally there is also pronounced as //zʶ// and pronounced as //rʶ//. Other consonants, and vowels, may be phonetically uvularized. In Greenlandic, long vowels are uvularized before uvular consonants,[3] and English speakers retaining the Northumbrian Burr are reported both to uvularize and to retract vowels before a rhotic.[4]