Editing Velar consonant (section)

==Lack of velars==
The only languages recorded to lack velars (and any dorsal consonant at all) may be [[Xavante language|Xavante]], standard [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]] (though /tVt/ is pronounced [kVt], a pattern also found in the [[Niihau dialect]] of Hawaiian), and arguably several [[Skou languages]] ([[Wutung language|Wutung]], the Dumo dialect of [[Vanimo language|Vanimo]], and [[Bobe language (Papuan)|Bobe]]), which have a coda {{IPA|[ŋ]}} that has been analyzed as the realization of [[nasal vowel]]s. In [[Pirahã language|Pirahã]], men may lack the only velar consonant.

Other languages lack simple velars. An areal feature of the [[indigenous languages of the Americas]] of the coastal regions of the [[Pacific Northwest]] is that historical *k was palatalized. When such sounds remained stops, they were transcribed {{angbr IPA|kʸ}} in [[Americanist phonetic notation]], presumably corresponding to IPA {{angbr IPA|c}}, but in others, such as the [[Saanich dialect]] of [[Coast Salish languages|Coastal Salish]], [[Salish-Spokane-Kalispel language|Salish-Spokane-Kalispel]], and [[Chemakum language|Chemakum]], *k went further and affricated to {{IPA|[tʃ]}}. Likewise, historical *k’ has become {{IPA|[tʃʼ]}} and historical *x has become {{IPA|[ʃ]}}; there was no *g or *ŋ. In the [[Northwest Caucasian languages]], historical *{{IPA|[k]}} has also become palatalized, becoming {{IPA|/kʲ/}} in [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] and {{IPA|/tʃ/}} in most [[Circassian languages|Circassian]] varieties. In both regions the languages retain a [[labialized velar consonant|labialized velar series]] (e.g. {{IPA|[kʷ], [kʼʷ], [gʷ], [xʷ], [w]}} in the North Caucasus) as well as [[uvular consonant]]s.<ref>Viacheslav A. Chirikba, 1996, ''Common West Caucasian: the reconstruction of its phonological system and parts of its lexicon and morphology'', p. 192. Research School CNWS: Leiden.</ref> In the languages of those families that retain plain velars, both the plain and labialized velars are ''pre-velar'', perhaps to make them more distinct from the uvulars which may be ''post-velar''. Prevelar consonants are susceptible to palatalization. A similar system, contrasting {{IPA|*kʲ}} with {{IPA|*kʷ}} and leaving {{IPA|*k}} marginal at best, is reconstructed for [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]].

Apart from the voiceless plosive {{IPA|[k]}}, no other velar consonant is particularly common, even the {{IPA|[w]}} and {{IPA|[ŋ]}} that occur in English. There can be no phoneme {{IPA|/ɡ/}} in a language that lacks voiced stops, like [[Mandarin Chinese]],{{efn|What is written ''g'' in [[pinyin]] is {{IPA|/k/}}, though that sound does have an allophone {{IPA|[ɡ]}} in atonic syllables.}} but it is sporadically missing elsewhere. Of the languages surveyed in the ''World Atlas of Language Structures'', about 10% of languages that otherwise have {{IPA|/p b t d k/}} are missing {{IPA|/ɡ/}}.<ref>[http://wals.info/feature/5 The World Atlas of Language Structures Online:Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems]</ref>

[[Pirahã language|Pirahã]] has both a {{IPA|[k]}} and a {{IPA|[ɡ]}} phonetically. However, the {{IPA|[k]}} does not behave as other consonants, and the argument has been made that it is phonemically {{IPA|/hi/}}, leaving Pirahã with only {{IPA|/ɡ/}} as an underlyingly velar consonant.

[[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] does not distinguish {{IPA|[k]}} from {{IPA|[t]}}; {{angbr|k}} tends toward {{IPA|[k]}} at the beginning of utterances, {{IPA|[t]}} before {{IPA|[i]}}, and is variable elsewhere, especially in the dialect of Ni{{okina}}ihau and Kaua{{okina}}i. Since Hawaiian has no {{IPA|[ŋ]}}, and {{angbr|w}} varies between {{IPA|[w]}} and {{IPA|[v]}}, it is not clearly meaningful to say that Hawaiian has phonemic velar consonants.

Several [[Khoisan languages]] have limited numbers or distributions of pulmonic velar consonants. (Their click consonants are articulated in the uvular or possibly velar region, but that occlusion is part of the [[airstream mechanism]] rather than the place of articulation of the consonant.) [[Khoekhoe language|Khoekhoe]], for example, does not allow velars in medial or final position, but in [[Juǀʼhoan dialect|Juǀʼhoan]] velars are rare even in initial position.