Velar ejective affricate

A velar ejective affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨kxʼ⟩. [kxʼ] is a common realization of a velar ejective often transcribed /kʼ/, and it is rare for a language to distinguish /kʼ/ and /kxʼ/, though several of the Nguni languages do so,^[1] as well as the Northeast Caucasian language Karata-Tukita.

Features

Features of a velar ejective affricate:

Its manner of articulation is affricate, which means it is produced by first stopping the airflow entirely, then allowing air flow through a constricted channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the soft palate.
Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords.
It is an oral consonant, which means that air is not allowed to escape through the nose.
It is a median consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream down the midline of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
The airstream mechanism is ejective (glottalic egressive), which means the air is forced out by pumping the glottis upward.

Language	Word	IPA	Meaning
Hadza	dlaggwa	[c𝼆ʼakxʷ’a]	'to cradle'
Haida	ttsanskkaagid	[tsʼanskxʼaːkit]	'beams'
Karata-Tukita^[2]	^{[example needed]}
Xhosa	krola	[kxʼola]	'inscribe '

↑ The ejective articulation of the Nguni consonants is however quite light.
↑ "TITUS Didactica: North-East Caucasian Consonant Systems". titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de. Retrieved 2026-04-19.