Voiceless uvular fricative

Voiceless uvular fricative
χ
ꭓ
IPA number	142
Encoding
Entity (decimal)	χ
Unicode (hex)	U+03C7
X-SAMPA	X
Kirshenbaum	X
Braille
Image

The voiceless uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨χ⟩ (or more properly ⟨ꭓ⟩), or in broad transcription ⟨x⟩ although the latter technically represents a velar pronunciation. The sound is represented by ⟨x̣⟩ (ex with underdot) in Americanist phonetic notation.

For a voiceless pre-uvular fricative (also called post-velar), see voiceless velar fricative.

Features

Features of the voiceless uvular fricative:

• Its manner of articulation is fricative, which means it is produced by constricting air flow through a narrow channel at the place of articulation, causing turbulence.
• Its place of articulation is uvular, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue (the dorsum) at the uvula.
• Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibrations of the vocal cords. In some languages the vocal cords are actively separated, so it is always voiceless; in others the cords are lax, so that it may take on the voicing of adjacent sounds.
• It is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only.
• It is a central consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue, rather than to the sides.
• The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds.

Occurrence

Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) note that there is "a complication in the case of uvular fricatives in that the shape of the vocal tract may be such that the uvula vibrates." See voiceless uvular raised non-sonorant trill for more information.

Language		Word	IPA	Meaning	Notes
Abkhaz		хпа	[χpa]	'three'	Contrasts with labialized and palatalized forms. See Abkhaz phonology
Adyghe		пхъашэ	[pχaːʃa]	'rough'
Afrikaans		goed	[χut]	'good'	May be a voiceless trill [ʀ̥] when word-initial. Some speakers realize it as velar [x]. See Afrikaans phonology
Archi		хол	[χol]	'arm'
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic		khokha	[χɔ:χa:]	'nectarine'	May vacillate to /x/ for some speakers.
Aleut	Atkan dialect	hatix̂	[hɑtiχ]	'ten'
Arabic	Modern Standard	خضراء	[χadˤraːʔ]	'green (f)'	May be velar, post-velar or uvular, depending on dialect. See Arabic phonology
Armenian	Eastern	խոտ	[χot]	‘grass’
Avar		орх	[orχ]	'to lift'	Contrasts with a tense form
Bashkir		хат	[χɑt]	'letter'
Berber	Kabyle	axxam	[aχχam]	'house'
Chilcotin		?	[ʔælaχ]	'I made it'
Danish	Standard	pres	[ˈpχæs]	'pressure'	Before /ʁ/, aspiration in /pʰ, tˢ, kʰ/ is realized as devoicing of /ʁ/. See Danish phonology
Dutch	Netherlandic	Scheveningen	[ˈsχeɪ̯vənɪŋə(n)]	'Scheveningen'	Many central and western dialects. Corresponds to /ɣ/ and /x/ in standard Netherlandic Dutch. See Dutch phonology
	The Hague	standaard	[ˈstɑndaːχt]	'standard'	Traditional allophone of /ʀ/, occurring after vowels before voiceless consonants.
English	Many speakers of White South African English	gogga	[ˈχɒχə]	'insect'	Less commonly velar [x], occurs only in loanwords from Afrikaans and Khoisian. See English phonology
Eyak		da.x̣	[daːχ]	'and'
French		proche	[pχɔʃ]	'nearby'	Allophone of /ʁ/ before or after voiceless obstruent. See French phonology
German	Chemnitz dialect	Rock	[χɔkʰ]	'skirt'	In free variation with [ʁ̞], [ʁ], [ʀ̥] and [q]. Doesn't occur in the coda. See Chemnitz dialect phonology
	Lower Rhine	Wirte	[ˈvɪχtə]	'hosts'	In free variation with [ɐ] between a vowel and a voiceless coronal consonant.
	Standard	Dach	[daχ]	'roof'	Appears only after certain back vowels. See German phonology
	Swiss	mich	[mɪχ]	'me' (acc.)	Some speakers, for others it's velar [x]. Swiss German makes no distinction between /x/ and /ç/.
Haida		ḵ'aláax̂an	[qʼʌlɑ́χʌn]	'fence'
Hebrew		אוכל	[ʔo̞χe̞l]	'food'	May be a trilled fricative instead. See Modern Hebrew phonology
Kabardian		пхъэ	[pχa]	'wood'
Klallam		sx̣aʔqʷaʔ	[sχaʔqʷaʔ]	'salmon backbone'
Lakota		ȟóta	[ˈχota]	'gray'
Lezgian		хат	[χatʰ]	'bead'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Limburgish	Hamont dialect	jòr	[jɔːχ¹]	'year'	Word-final allophone of /ʀ/; can be a fricative trill [ʀ̝̊] instead. See Hamont dialect phonology
Luxembourgish		Zuch	[t͡suχ]	'train'	Also described as velar [x]. See Luxembourgish phonology
Ongota		[χibiɾi]		'bat'
Oowekyala		[t͡sʼkʷʼχtʰt͡ɬʰkʰt͡sʰ]		'the invisible one here with me will be short'
Nez Perce		[ˈχəχɑˑt͡s]		'grizzly bear'
Portuguese	Fluminense	anarquia	[ɐ̃nɐ̞χˈki.ɐ]	'anarchy'	In free variation with [x], [ʁ ~ ʀ], [ħ] and [h] before voiceless consonants.
	General Brazilian	marrom	[mɐ̞ˈχõː]	'the color brown'	Some dialects, corresponds to rhotic consonant /ʁ/. See Portuguese phonology
Saanich		wexes	[wəχəs]	'small frogs'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Seri		xeecoj	[χɛːkox]	'wolf'	Contrasts with a labialized form
Spanish	European	ojo	[ˈo̞χo̞]	'eye'	May be post-velar instead. It's also an allophone of /x/ before back vowels and [w] for speakers with a velar /x/. It corresponds to [x ~ h] in southern Spain and Latin America. See Spanish phonology
	Peruvian
	Ponce dialect	perro	[ˈpe̞χo̞]	'dog'	This and [ʀ̥] are the primary realizations of /r/ in this dialect. See Spanish phonology
Swedish	Southern	sjuk	[χʉːk]	'sick'	Dialectal. See Swedish phonology
Tlingit		tlaxh	[tɬʰɐχ]	'very'	Contrasts with labialized, ejective and labialized ejective form
Ubykh		[χɐpɬɨ́]		'pink'	One of ten distinct uvular fricative phonemes. See Ubykh phonology
Uyghur		یاخشی/yaxshi	[jɑχʃi]	'good'
Welsh		carchar	[ˈkarχar]	'jail'	See Welsh phonology
West Frisian		berch	[bɛrχ]	'mountain'	Never occurs in word-initial positions.
Yiddish		בוך	[bʊχ]	'book'	See Yiddish phonology

See also

• Index of phonetics articles

Bibliography

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