Voiceless velar plosive

IPA mark	k
IPA number	109
IPA character description	Latin minuscule k
Unicode	U + 006B (k)
HTML (dec.)	& # 107;
X-SAMPA	k
Kirshenbaum	k
Audio sample ? / i [ ka ʔaka ]

The voiceless velar plosive (a voiceless , the rear dorsum educated plosive ) has the following in different languages phonetic and orthographic realizations:

• German [ k, kʰ ]: K, k; ck ; sometimes ch before r and s
  • Examples: K amm [ came ], Sa ck [ zak ], Ch rist [ kʰʁɪst ], Fu ch s [ fʊks ]
• English [ k, kʰ ]: K, k; ck ; q and c before a, o, u and consonant as well as ch depending on the origin of the word (e.g. in ch emical [ kʰɛmikəl ], but not in ch eck [ tʃɛk ], or in ch aracter [ kæɹɛkt, ], but not in ch arter [ tʃɑ (ɹ) tə ]).
• French [⁠ k ⁠] : Each k and qu and c before a, o, u and consonant.
  • Examples: a c tuel [ aktɥɛl ], c ommune [ kɔmyn ], qu eue [ kø ], c o q [ kɔk ]
• Italian [⁠ k ⁠] : Each q and ch and c before a , o , u or a consonant.
• Russian [⁠ k ⁠] : К (U + 041A), к (U + 043A)
• Spanish [⁠ k ⁠] : each k , each qu before e and i , each c before a, o, u and consonant.

See also

• consonant

Pulmonary consonants according to IPA (2005)	bilabial		labio- dental		dental		alveolar		post- alveolar		retroflex		palatal		velar		uvular		phase- ryngal		glottal
	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.	stl.	sth.
Plosives	​p​	​b​					​t​	​d​			​ʈ​	​ɖ​	​c​	​ɟ​	​k​	​ɡ​	​q​	​ɢ​			​ʔ​
Nasals		​m​		​ɱ​				​n​				​ɳ​		​ɲ​		​ŋ​		​ɴ​
Vibrants		​ʙ​						​r​										​ʀ​
Taps / flaps				​ⱱ​				​ɾ​				​ɽ​
Fricatives	​ɸ​	​β​	​f​	​v​	​θ​	​ð​	​s​	​z​	​ʃ​	​ʒ​	​ʂ​	​ʐ​	​ç​	​ʝ​	​x​	​ɣ​	​χ​	​ʁ​	​H​	​ʕ​	​H​	​ɦ​
lateral fricatives							​ɬ​	​ɮ​
Approximants				​ʋ​				​ɹ​				​ɻ​		​j​		​w​ ¹
lateral approximants								​l​				​ɭ​		​ʎ​		​ʟ​
¹ The labialised variant [ w ] was inserted here as a voiced velar approximant ( half vowel ) instead of the non-labialised variant [ ɰ ].