The only languages recorded to lack velars (and any dorsal consonant at all) include
Xavante, standard
Tahitian (though /tVt/ is pronounced [kVt], a pattern also found in the
Niihau dialect of Hawaiian), and arguably several
Skou languages (
Wutung, the Dumo dialect of
Vanimo, and
Bobe), which have a coda that has been analyzed as the realization of
nasal vowels. In
Pirahã, men 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 in
Americanist phonetic notation, presumably corresponding to IPA , but in others, such as the
Saanich dialect of
Coastal Salish,
Salish-Spokane-Kalispel, and
Chemakum, *k went further and affricated to . Likewise, historical *k’ has become and historical *x has become ; there was no *g or *ŋ. In the
Northwest Caucasian languages, historical * has also become palatalized, becoming in
Ubykh and in most
Circassian varieties. In both regions the languages retain a
labialized velar series (e.g. in the North Caucasus) as well as
uvular consonants. 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 with and leaving marginal at best, is reconstructed for
Proto-Indo-European. Apart from the voiceless plosive , no other velar consonant is particularly common, even the and that occur in English. There can be no phoneme in a language that lacks voiced stops, like
Mandarin Chinese, but it is sporadically missing elsewhere. Of the languages surveyed in the
World Atlas of Language Structures, about 10% of languages that otherwise have are missing .
Pirahã has both a and a phonetically. However, the does not behave as other consonants, and the argument has been made that it is phonemically , leaving Pirahã with only as an underlyingly velar consonant.
Hawaiian does not distinguish from ; tends toward at the beginning of utterances, before , and is variable elsewhere, especially in the dialect of Niihau and Kauai. Since Hawaiian has no , and varies between and , 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, for example, does not allow velars in medial or final position, but in
Juǀʼhoan velars are rare even in initial position. No velar consonants have been found in data for
Omurano, a language isolate of Peru. == consonants==