Uvulars are
consonants articulated with the back of the
tongue against or near the
uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than
velar consonants. Uvulars may be
stops,
fricatives,
nasals,
trills, or
approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and the symbol for the voiced fricative is used instead. Uvular
affricates can certainly be made but are rare: they occur in some southern High-German dialects, as well as in a few African and Native American languages. (Ejective uvular affricates occur in as realizations of uvular stops in
Lillooet and
Georgian.) Uvular consonants are typically incompatible with
advanced tongue root, and they often cause
retraction of neighboring vowels.