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The voiceless velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is k, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is k. The voiceless velar plosive occurs in English, and it is the sound denoted by the letter "c" in cat or the letter "k" in skin.
Features of this consonant:
Varieties of [k]
English has both aspirated and plain [k], but they are allophones.
When [k] occurs at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable, like in cry, vacation, or Korea, then it is always aspirated. When it occurs at the beginning of an unstressed syllable that isn't at the beginning of a word, like in trafficking, walker, or typical, then it is slightly aspirated or unaspirated. When [k] occurs in a consonant cluster following [s], like in sky, scrape, or whisker, then it is always unaspirated. When it occurs at the end of a word, like in pack, silk, or whisk, then it is usually unaspirated, and if the word is at the end of an utterance, then the [k] is often unreleased.
In other languages
The [k] sound is a very common sound cross-linguistically. Most languages have at least a plain [k], and some distinguish more than one variety. Many Indian languages, such as Hindi, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain [k].
Georgian has aspirated and ejective [k]. They are distinct phonemes, not allophones. Aspirated k is spelled with ქ. Ejective k is spelled with კ.
In German, as in English, aspirated and plain [k] are allophones.
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