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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ Throat-made sound 🐸 Harsh throat sound 🔤 A throat consonant
guttural

guttural

8.2
A speech sound made at the back of the mouth or in the throat
  • noun
  • /ˈɡʌtərəl/
  • Specialized
translation icon : guttural
  • The film featured a character whose speech was marked by harsh gutturals, making him sound intimidating.

Examples

  • As she tried to imitate the language, her attempts produced only strange gutturals from her throat.

  • Downer's voice was still rich with the tight gutturals of western New South Wales.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Hoarse gutturals, no sweetness there: '

    Fiction book (1996)

  • He spoke in contemporary speech, which I could understand well enough, but whose nasal trills, gutturals, sibilants, and indescribable friccatives I could never articulate.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The singer's voice was filled with deep gutturals that resonated throughout the hall.

Synonyms

pharyngeal
vsguttural
  • Specialized
1 9.8

A consonant sound made by pressing the tongue root against the back of the throat

is a general back mouth or throat consonant not limited to tongue root contact
guttural consonant
vsguttural
  • Specialized
9.3

A sound you make when speaking at the back of the mouth or in the throat

is the general term covering any back of mouth or throat consonant
pharyngeal consonant
vsguttural
  • Specialized
9.9

A speech sound where you tighten the back of the throat when speaking

is a back of mouth or throat consonant but less specific about constriction

Compounds

guttural consonant
  • Specialized
9.3

A sound you make when speaking at the back of the mouth or in the throat

Surface Forms

guttural singular
gutturals plural

Morphology

guttural = guttur + al

Built from a non‑standalone combining form ('guttur-') with the adjective-forming suffix '-al' used nominally; because the base is not an English word, the phonetic/phonological meaning 'consonant produced in the throat' is not transparently inferable by learners.

Etymology

Guttural comes from the Latin word guttur meaning 'throat'. In language study a 'guttural' is a speech sound made at the back of the mouth or in the throat, which is why those sounds are called gutturals.