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.
There is also a voiced post-velar or pre-uvular plosive[8] in some languages, which is articulated slightly more front compared with the place of articulation of the prototypical uvular plosive, though not as front as the prototypical velar plosive. The International Phonetic Alphabet does not have a separate symbol for that sound, though it can be transcribed as ⟨ɢ̟⟩, (symbol denotes an advanced⟨ɢ⟩), ⟨ɡ̠⟩ or ⟨ɡ⟩ (both symbols denote a retracted⟨ɡ⟩).
↑Instead of "pre-uvular", it can be called "advanced uvular", "fronted uvular", "post-velar", "retracted velar" or "backed velar". For simplicity, this article uses only the term "pre-uvular".
Watson, Janet C. E. (2002). The Phonology and Morphology of Arabic. The Phonology of the World's Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780199257591.
Vaux, Bert (December 2001) [orig. pub. 1999, Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 7]. A Note on Pharyngeal Features (Report). Version 2.
